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Prosecutors seeking death penalty against Nikolas Cruz, confessed Parkland gunman

Confessed Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz appears in court for a status hearing before Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer on February 19, 2018 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. 

PARKLAND, Fla. — Florida prosecutors will ask for the death penalty for confessed Parkland school gunman Nikolas Cruz, State Attorney Michael Satz said Tuesday.

Satz said he filed a "notice of intent to seek death" in the 17 first-degree murder counts stemming from the Feb. 14 rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that left 14 students and three adults dead.

Cruz also is charged with attempted murder in the shootings of 17 others who survived.

Last week, a grand jury in Broward County formally indicted Cruz in the Feb. 14 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High.

The family that took Cruz after his adoptive mother died suddenly last year said that, although the 19-year-old was troubled, it was unaware of any red flags to hint beforehand that he planned to carry out last week’s deadly attack.

"We knew he had troubles and a couple of issues, but I've raised three boys, and I thought we could help," James Snead told The New York Times on Sunday. "It's a very selfish thing he did -- aside from the families he hurt, he hurt the family that tried to help him and give him a chance."

James Snead and his wife, Kimberly Snead, told the Times that they took in Cruz after their son, who knew Cruz from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, asked if he could move in with them. Cruz had been staying with a friend of his mother's after she died Nov. 1 of pneumonia, according to the Times.

"We didn't know he had such an evil past," James Snead told the Times. "We just didn't know."

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