Uber driver: Nikolas Cruz seemed like 'just a normal person'

PARKLAND, Fla. — The Uber driver who picked up Nikolas Cruz on Valentine’s Day said she noticed nothing unusual about the 19-year-old in the minutes before police said he opened fire on students and staff members at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, killing 17.

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The driver, who declined to be identified, told WFOR-TV that she picked up Cruz around the area in which he lived and that he had a large bag with him that she thought was a guitar case.

"He told me, 'I am going to my music class,'" the driver told WFOR-TV.

Court records released earlier this month showed Cruz took an Uber to his former high school on Feb. 14. Officials with Uber confirmed to The Associated Press that Cruz used the service before the deadly attack, but the company declined to answer questions about whether the Uber driver noticed strange behavior from Cruz, or whether he was carrying a gun.

The driver told WFOR-TV that she doesn't speak English fluently, so she didn't speak much with Cruz. Still, she said, he seemed like "just a normal person," and he gave her no indication of the carnage authorities said he planned.

The Uber driver said she thought of Cruz later, after she started seeing news reports of the attack on Marjory Stoneman Douglas High.

"I thought, 'Oh, I just left someone over there," she told WFOR-TV.

Court records obtained by the news station showed that deputies with the Broward Sheriff's Office searched the Uber driver's car for "bullets, guns, writings by Cruz or anything else that might be connected to the shooting." The driver told WFOR-TV that deputies did not find anything significant.

Cruz was arrested on Valentine’s Day after police said he fired several shots from an AR-15 rifle at Marjory Stoneman Douglas, killing 14 students and three teachers.

He is facing 17 counts of premeditated murder.

Cox Media Group