Nikolas Cruz Classmate Says He ‘Talked About Killing Our Friends’

A former friend of confessed gunman Nikolas Cruz says that he frequently “talked about killing our friends.”

Ariana Lopez, a former friend and classmate of the 19-year-old man accused of killing 17 students and teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, says that she wasn’t surprised to hear that he was the shooter.

Lopez, who spoke with Good Morning America, said that she and Cruz used to be friends, but they eventually grew apart after Cruz began exhibiting dark behavior, including threatening others, expressing a love of weapons, and engaging in fights.

“He used to sell knives out of his lunch box which I thought was insane. You can’t have knives, this is a school. He would be like, ‘hey guys, want some knives?’” Lopez claimed, going on to explain other disturbingbehavior.

“He would talk about how he sympathized with Syrian terrorists and say people who opposed them should be killed. He posted pictures of 15 or more firearms just on his bed. Like this was normal. Like you could even see a hamper in the background,” Lopez said. “He talked about killing our parents, our friends, boyfriends and girlfriends.”

Lopez also claimed that she reported Cruz to school officials multiple times after their friendship ended, stating that the teenager would oftentimes follow her and a friend after school.

Cruz, who had been expelled from the high school, entered the building just minutes before dismissal on Wednesday, Feb. 14. Armed with an AR-15 and several magazines of ammunition, he pulled the fire alarm and opened fire as students began exiting their classrooms. The shooting claimed the lives of 17 students and adults and injured more than a dozen.

Lopez says that she wasn’t surprised when she learned that Cruz was the gunman.

“I knew it. We all did. Everybody who knew him, we knew it. He was the only person that could even … before they announced that he was the shooter we all knew it was Nik. He was the only person we could think of that would do something like this because it was obvious that he had the power to do this.”

Cruz, who has confessed to the shooting, has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.