By Staff Writer
Parkland parents suffer while medical examiner describes how their children were killed
The second medical examiner took the stand and provided harrowing evidence about the young Parkland victims’ autopsies and the causes of their deaths.
The intense description from Dr. Rebecca MacDougall about the manner and visual of the killings left parents in tears and obvious shocked and disbelief.
Broward County’s chief medical examiner testified about everything from bullets fired by Nikolas Cruz at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School entering his victims’ bodies, to the organs damaged and broken, where blood went, and the paths the bullets took leaving their bodies.
Dr. MacDougall testified she has performed about 3,500 autopsies and always found the cause of the person’s death. She estimated about 1,000 of the deaths she determined were from gunshot wounds.
On the seventh day of testimony in Cruz’s sentencing trial, this gruesome display of what it looked like to the bodies of family members in complete description..
The first witness was the proprietor of the shop where Cruz purchased the rifle he used in the massacre. Michael Morrison, the owner of Sunrise Tactical, was asked about the paper work required to be filled out by Cruz. He explained in detail about background check & waiting period, and spoke to state law changes over the past few years, with the age requirement raised from 18 to 21.
Cruz executed 17 people, and pleaded guilty to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder.
When the trial is finished, Cruz should be sentenced to life in prison or executed by the death penalty.
The prosecution has to provide evidence for aggravating circumstance and a unanimous jury decision is needed for the death penalty, while the defense is objecting to testimony and evidence they feel could provoke the jury.
This trial is expected to carry on into October.
