Parkland school shooting suspect can’t be called ‘animal’

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The former student accused of murdering 17 people at a Florida high school cannot be called derogatory terms such as “animal” or “that thing” by prosecutors or their witnesses at his upcoming trial, but calling the killings “a massacre” is legitimate, the judge has ruled.

Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer said in a ruling released Friday that it’s impossible to create a complete list of words that jurors shouldn’t hear to describe Nikolas Cruz when he’s tried for the Feb. 14, 2018, killings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland.

She sided with Cruz’s attorneys that calling him names like “animal” or “that thing” during testimony, as some victims’ parents have done in media interviews, would cross the line. But she said the defense request this week that Cruz only be called by his name or “the defendant” goes too far.

“Some words and terms the Defendant requests not to be used, such as ‘school shooter,’ ‘murderer,’ or ‘killer,’ in and of themselves are not derogatory,” Scherer wrote. “They are normal words that may be used to describe particular facts.”