School shooting suspect foretold intention in videos

School shooting suspect foretold intention in videos

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.

In chilling cellphone videos released Wednesday, the suspect in a February massacre at a Florida high school announced his intention to become the next school shooter, aiming to kill at least 20 people and saying “you’re all going to die.”

The three videos released by prosecutors were found on the cellphone of suspect Nikolas Cruz after the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that killed 17 people and injured 17 others.

Cruz, wearing a ball cap, introduces himself in the first video and says he is “going to be the next school shooter of 2018.” He goes on to say that he wants to use an AR-15 to kill at least 20 people and specifies the high school in Parkland. The videos are undated, but on one he says, “Today is the day. Today it all begins. The day of my massacre shall begin.”

US general says some Taliban interested in peace

WASHINGTON

Some elements of the Taliban in Afghanistan are showing interest in peace talks, the top U.S. commander in Kabul said Wednesday, citing “off stage” contacts involving what he described as mid- and high-level leaders of the insurgency.

“A number of channels of dialogue have opened up between the various stakeholders in the peace process,” Nicholson told reporters at the Pentagon. Speaking from his office in Kabul, Nicholson said he could not name names because the contacts are being pursued confidentially to improve the chances of advancing toward actual peace talks.

“What you’re seeing right now is a lot of the diplomatic activity and dialogue is occurring off the stage, and it’s occurring at multiple levels,” he said.

School shooting video game removed online

BELLEVUE, Wash.

A Seattle-area company has removed a school shooting video game from its online platform after widespread backlash.

The “Active Shooter” video game was pulled days before it was to be released on the video-game marketplace Steam.

Valve Corp., Steam’s parent company, said Tuesday that it was removing the computer video game because the developer was a “troll with a history of customer abuse.”

The game was developed by Revived Games, published by Acid and led by a person named Ata Berdiyev. Valve spokesman Doug Lombardi said Berdiyev had previously been kicked off the platform under a different business name.

The game allows players to re-create school shootings by stalking school hallways and racking up kills.

Teen charged in machete killing blamed on MS-13

ROOSEVELT, N.Y.

Another person has been arrested in connection with a New York teenager’s machete slaying blamed on the MS-13 gang.

Eighteen-year-old Josue Figueroa-Velasquez pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Wednesday on murder charges in the death of 15-year-old Angel Soler of Long Island.

Angel’s remains were found last October in a woodland in Nassau County. Authorities say Angel was attacked by a group of people and was hacked to death with a machete in July.

Figueroa-Velasquez is represented by Legal Aid. Two other people also have been charged in Angel’s killing.

Associated Press