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 2018 killings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High.