Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz filmed attacking sheriff deputy inside jail

New footage shows the violent confrontation inside Broward County's jail last year

Video has emerged of Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz attacking a deputy inside Broward County’s main jail.

The attack took place on 13 November, 2018, and depicts Cruz pacing around a common area before getting into an argument with a guard and attacking him.

WSVN 7 News reporting from Fort Lauderdale obtained the video from the jail.

According to documents obtained from the prison, Cruz and the deputy, Sgt Raymond Beltran, began fighting after the officer “asked Cruz to stop dragging his sandals on the ground while walking around”.

Cruz can be seen giving the middle finger to the guard before rushing him and attacking him. The two men wrestle, crashing into a table before hitting the ground. The struggle continues on the cement floor as Cruz deals repeated blows to Mr Beltran’s back before grabbing the deputy’s taser.

Though the taser does deploy, no one is impacted by the current, and eventually Mr Beltran retrieves the device and the two men get back on their feet, squaring off to fight once again.

Mr Beltran punches Mr Cruz, who disengages. With his taser reloaded, Mr Beltran approaches Cruz, who then willingly gets onto the floor and submits to being restrained.

The fight lasts for nearly a minute.

Mr Beltran is no longer guarding Cruz. The officer was arrested last march for driving under the influence in Washington State while on duty for the Broward’s Sheriffs' Office.

Cruz appeared in court on Monday on assault charges for attacking the deputy. Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer chose to defer making a ruling to another hearing on 24 February. Cruz faces the death penalty for his role in the Parkland shooting, and has pleaded not guilty.  

He killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on 14 February, 2018, and injured 17 others. The attack is the deadliest school shooting in US history. 

Students joined together in the year following the shooting to campaign against gun violence and in support of gun control. The teens formed the group Never Again MSD to advocate for tougher gun control legislation. 

The Broward County Sheriffs’ Office faced heavy criticism following the shooting for loopholes that allowed Cruz to purchase a gun despite having a background of threatening behaviour. Sheriff Scott Israel’s deputies were also criticised for staying outside the school during the shooting rather than confronting Cruz. 

Nikolas Cruz got involved in the violent confrontation last year

 

CNN reported that Mr Israel received at least 45 calls over the last decade related either to Nikolas Cruz directly or his brother, despite the sheriff's office insisting they’d received no more than 23. 

Mr Israel was removed from office by a bipartisan vote in the Florida Senate in 2019.