Jailed Florida suspect faces new counts
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Florida school shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz attacked an officer at the county jail and now faces new charges including use of the officer’s electric stun device, authorities said Wednesday.
Broward County sheriff’s office spokesman Veda Coleman-Wright said in an email Wednesday that Cruz assaulted Sgt. Raymond Beltran around 6 p.m. Tuesday.
Jail records show Cruz now is charged with aggravated assault on an officer, battery on an officer and use of an “electric or chemical weapon against an officer.”
The 20-year-old Cruz faces the death penalty if convicted in the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland that killed 17 people and wounded 17 others. He’s pleaded innocent in the shooting, but his lawyers say he would plead guilty in exchange for a life prison sentence.
According to the assault arrest report, Cruz attacked Beltran after being told to “not drag his sandals around” while walking in a jail recreation area. Cruz responded, the report says, by showing Beltran his middle finger and then rushing the deputy and striking him with his fist.
The report says Cruz and Beltran then “got into a physical altercation” in which both wound up on the floor and Cruz was able to wrest control of the stun gun, technically called a “conducive electronic weapon.” The stun gun discharged but it’s not clear from the report whether it struck anyone; Beltran was able to regain control after being struck several times by Cruz.