Parkland shooting suspect heard ‘demonic voices’ telling him to ‘burn, kill, destroy’ according to new interrogation video

The Parkland shooting suspect heard voices telling him to "burn, kill, destroy", he said in a new interrogation video released by prosecutors.

The video, which was made public on Wednesday, shows Nikolas Cruz hunched over, wearing hospital clothes, and speaking so softly at the beginning that Broward Sheriff’s Detective John Curcio has to repeatedly urge him to talk louder.

He is also seen taking two fingers, putting them to his temple and pretending to pull a trigger, and punching himself hard in the face with both hands.

Most of the interrogation in the footage focuses on a "demonic" voice Cruz claims he has heard inside his head for years that urges him to commit violent acts. When asked what the voice usually said, Cruz answered, "Burn. Kill. Destroy." He also said the voice told him to cut himself.

At another point with Curcio out of the room, Cruz mutters, "Kill me," and then, later, "I want to die."

Cruz, 19, is accused of killing 17 students and staff members in the February massacre at the school in Parkland, Florida.

A judge entered a plea of not guilty on the suspect’s behalf after he stood mute to the charges in March, but court documents show the former student has confessed to being the gunman.

Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri told the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission that Cruz’s fluctuating behavior through the years made it difficult for school officials to determine how he should be handled. Cruz, a 19-year-old former student at Stoneman Douglas, is charged with killing 17 people in the Valentine’s Day attack there.

"It was really a roller-coaster with Cruz really from birth," Gualtieri said. A report released last week by the Broward County school district said he began showing behavioral issues that got him kicked out of pre-kindergarten. He spent his school years shuttling between regular campuses and those for children with emotional and behavioral problems. "He had some really bad low times but at times he was without behavioral issues," Gualtieri said.

Additional reporting by AP.