Florida school killer Nikolas Cruz was filmed last year by a neighbour doing target practice while apparently wearing a Donald Trump 'Make America Great Again' cap. / CNN
Disturbing footage has emerged of suspected Florida high school killer Nikolas Cruz doing target practice in a backyard while shirtless and wearing a Make America Great Again cap.
In the video, which was taken by a neighbour and obtained by CNN, the teenager can be seen wearing the MAGA cap and socks while pumping off rounds in the yard.
The teenager can be seen in the video firing the gun several times outside before securing it in the waistband of his shorts and heading back inside the home, according to the Daily Mail.
A neighbour filmed Nikolas Cruz doing target practice in a backyard while shirtless and wearing a Make America Great Again cap in the months before the deadly Florida high school shooting. Photo / CNN
CNN says the video was taken in October, just months before the deadly high school massacre. The broadcaster said it appeared from the sound to be a BB gun.
The footage emerged the day after Cruz was arrested for shooting dead 17 people at Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Wednesday.
A fuller portrait of the shooter is still emerging as he is being painted as a loner who had worked at a dollar store, joined the school's ROTC program and posted photos of weapons on Instagram.
Authorities have not offered any specific motive for the shooting, except to say that Cruz had been expelled from the high school.
Students who knew him described a volatile teenager whose strange behaviour had caused others to end friendships with him.
Dakota Mutchler, a 17-year-old junior, said he used to be close friends with Cruz but hadn't seen him in more than a year after he was kicked out of the school.
"He started progressively getting a little more weird," Mutchler said.
Mutchler recalled Cruz posting on Instagram about killing animals and said he had talked about doing target practice in his backyard with a pellet gun.
This image of Cruz wearing a Make America Great Again cap was used as his profile image on Instagram.
The 19-year-old killer had also completed a marksmanship course at school, DailyMail.com can reveal.
Former friend Joshua Charo, 17, of Parkland, Florida, said Cruz had taken shooting instruction as part of his JROTC programme - and often pestered classmates for advice on gun purchases.
Charo said Cruz would send him photos of guns and other weaponry via Instagram and Snapchat but stopped after he was expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last winter.
He also told DailyMail.com that the killer was kicked out of school due to "behaviour issues" and because he was found to be carrying bullet casings in his bag.
"I knew him from freshman year to sophomore year"' Charo said. "When we were inside of class, we would talk but when we were outside it, we wouldn't really hold a conversation.
"He usually liked to talk about hunting, guns, stuff like that - that particular subject.
"He always showed people the guns he wanted to buy and he would always ask if they had any suggestions for which guns they thought would be better and stuff like that."
Charo added: "He was studying marksmanship in JROTC [US Army Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps]".
According to the JROTC website, the 10-lesson course, which is taught using air rifles, covers the history of marksmanship, as well as firearm safety.
Other subjects studied include aiming and firing and sight adjustment, with students given the opportunity to take part in competitions on completing the course.
Charo, who described Cruz as "a bit odd", also said the slightly-built 5ft 7in killer found making friends difficult and was unable to get a girlfriend.
Clashes with classmates were not uncommon, including one incident in which he fought with a boy named Amiyah because Cruz felt "he was bothering him".
This photo of a gun being held, as well as more weapons being stored in the closet, was posted on Cruz's Instagram page.
After being expelled in early 2017, he reportedly enrolled in evening classes, but also worked for at least six months at a Dollar Tree store in Coral Springs.
Staff at the store confirmed he had worked there but said they could not comment on their former colleague when approached by DailyMail.com.
Charo said it was there that he last saw Cruz, when he dropped by after watching a movie at a nearby cinema.
He told DailyMail.com Cruz had "been like he always is" during the chance encounter last summer but had seemed uninterested in reconnecting with high school friends.
"I'm not sure he talked to anyone in Douglas after he was expelled, he said. "I'm pretty sure he didn't talk to anyone after that – I guess they kind of forgot about him, you know."
Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel revealed late on Thursday that Cruz had confessed to carrying out one of the nation's deadliest school shootings and carried extra ammunition in his backpack.
Cruz told investigators he brought more loaded magazines to the school and kept them in the backpack until he got on campus.
This photo posted on the Instagram account of Nikolas Cruz shows a haul of weapons and a bullet proof vest lying on a bed.
The gunman fired into five classrooms - four on the first floor of the school and one on the second floor. The shooting lasted for three minutes.
When he was done firing, the assailant went to the third floor and dropped his AR-15 rifle and the backpack containing the ammunition.
He then ran out of the building and attempted to blend in with fleeing students.
After the rampage, the suspect headed to a Wal-Mart and bought a drink at a Subway restaurant before walking to a McDonald's. He was taken into custody about 40 minutes after leaving the McDonald's.
Cruz was arrested nearby - just over two miles away from his workplace and close to the Coral Springs home he had been living in since the death of his mother Lynda in November last year.
The Cruz family, comprised Nikolas, his mother Lynda, and his younger brother Zachary, had previously occupied a large home on a quiet road in Parkland until January 2017.
Neighbours there told DailyMail.com that they were relieved when the family moved out, due to Cruz's strange behavior - and Lynda's.
One, who asked not to be named but rolled her eyes on hearing Cruz's name, said: "He was weird. There was a lot of history there, a lot of stuff that went on.
"Take a closer look at his past, that's all I'm saying. Look at the mother too – there's a lot there"
Nikolas Cruz, 19, was arrested after he stormed Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland on Wednesday afternoon armed with an assault rifle.
Charo says despite reportedly being close to Lynda, Cruz never spoke about either his mother or his younger brother.
"He never mentioned his family,' he told DailyMail.com. 'I just found out yesterday he had a younger brother.
"I actually didn't know he was adopted. I didn't know much about his family – he never spoke about them at all, never mentioned them.
"It was a bit strange but then not a lot of teenagers talk about their families or anything like that."
In addition to the 14 slain students, among the dead were a football coach who also worked as a security guard, a senior who planned to attend Lynn University and an athletic director who was active in his Roman Catholic church.
The last of the bodies were removed from the high school Thursday after authorities analysed the crime scene. Thirteen wounded survivors were still hospitalised, including two in critical condition.
Cruz was ordered held without bond at a brief court hearing on Thursday.
He wore an orange jumpsuit with his hands cuffed at his waist.
His attorney had her arm around Cruz during the short appearance and afterward called him a "broken human being."
As the criminal case began to take shape, President Donald Trump, in an address to the nation, promised to "tackle the difficult issue of mental health", but avoided any mention of guns.
Trump, who owns a private club in Palm Beach, about 64km from Parkland, said he planned to visit the grieving community.
He weighed in on Twitter early , calling the suspect "mentally disturbed" and stressing that it was important to "report such instances to authorities, again and again!"
So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!
