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William Bryan CRUSE
Jr.
Classification:
Spree killer
Characteristics: Shooting
rampage at two shopping
centers
When he felt the taunting of two kids
outside his door was too much. Cruse grabbed three guns and went after
them.
In court Cruse claimed not to remember the rampage. Currently on Death
Row.
William Cruse
Retired librarian and delusional paranoiac William
Cruse always thought his Palm Bay, Florida, neighbors thought that he
was gay. He felt that the clerks at the local supermarket gossiped about
him everytime he went shopping. He also felt that the neighborhood kids
enjoyed taunting him and tresspassing into his property.
Not the easiest going person in the world, 60-year-old
Billy would scream obcenities and shoot his rifle in the air to warn of
any tresspassers. Things turned from bad to worse on April, 1987, when
two young boys accused him of making obcene remarks and sexually
provocative gestures.
When he was taken in by the police for questioning,
Cruse told them that a man had stuck his tongue at him in the store.
That, he reasoned, "was his way of saying I was queer."
Obviously uncomfortable with his sexuality, Cruse was a timebomb ready
to explode.
For Cruse the shit hit the proverbial fan at around 6
p.m. on April 23, 1987, when he felt the taunting of two kids outside
his door was too much. Cruse grabbed three guns and went after them. He
shot an innocent bystander -- a 14-year-old kid who was playing
basketball in his drivewave accross the street -- jumped into his white
Toyota and headed for the nearest Publix supermarket.
He killed three people in the parking lot, two Kuwaiti
students and a woman, but was unable to get into the store to kill more.
Cruse got back into his car and headed for the nearby Winn-Dixie
supermarket. As he started firing at the store, a cop arrived at the
scene. Cruse sprayed the patrol car with seven rounds mortally wounding
the officer.
A second officer unloaded his weapon on Cruse without
hitting him. Cruse, on the other hand, first hit him on the leg before
finishing him off as the frantic officer desperately tried to reload his
weapon.
On a roll, Cruse proceeded into the supermarket
shooting at anyone he saw. By the time he was done, Cruse had killed six
people and wounded ten others.
As police surrounded the store he took a
21-year-old woman hostage who he found hiding in the women's restroom.
After six-hour siege, he let her go. A little later police swarmed into
the store and arrested him.
'Shooting at anything
in sight,'
gunman kills 6 in Florida spree
The Phoenix Gazette
April 24, 1987
A gunman ''shooting
at anything in sight'' killed six people in a rampage at two shopping
centers before police fired tear gas into the store where he held three
hostages early today and wrestled him to the ground, authorities said.
At least 14 people were injured, two
critically, and the hostages were freed unharmed, police said. Police
initially said three people were found huddled unhurt in a refrigerated
storeroom, but later it was not certain of their number or location.
Gunman kills 6 and
injures 14 in 7
1/2-hour rampage at stores
San Jose Mercury News
April 24, 1987
A gunman "shooting at
anything in sight" killed six people in a rampage at two shopping
centers before police fired tear gas into the store where he had held
three hostages early today and wrestled him to the ground, authorities
said.
At least 14 other people were
injured, two critically, but the hostages were freed unharmed, police
said. The dead included two police officers.
Suspect in Florida shootings tormented and
tormenting
Palm Bay, Fla., April 24, 1997
Everybody on William B.
Cruse’s block knew he had a rifle.
He fired it in the air when children tiptoed across
his lawn. He aimed it at neighbors when they drove home from work and
the police say the 60-year-old unemployed loner used it Thursday night
on a shooting rampage that killed six people, including two police
officers, and wounded 10 others. Mr. Cruse was charged today with six
counts of murder as witnesses described the violent outburst that
punctured the evening bustle at two local shopping centers.
As residents struggled to make sense of the shootings
they described Mr. Cruse both as a tormentor in the neighborhood and as
a man tormented. They said he yelled at youngsters, but added that the
children often provoked him with taunts or pranks that seemed designed
to trip his hair-trigger temper.
Gray Ammunition Bag
They said he did his best to seem menacing, and some
neighbors said they had signed a petition stating he was dangerous.
Others said that until Thursday, when he walked out of his house with a
gray ammunition bag slung over his shoulder and opened fire, they had
not understood how menacing he really was. His aloof and gruff nature
fit their image of a neighborhood curmudgeon, someone to be avoided, not
hated.
"I make sure my kid doesn’t go on his lawn," said
Trish Hebert, who lives across the street from Mr. Cruse’s bungalow. "Nobody
is friends with him. We are acquaintances by virtue of location."
According to witnesses, the rampage Thursday night
began when Mr. Cruse came out of his house and fired shots at teen-agers
in a driveway across the street and at an old blue Chrysler that was
parked there. Mr. Cruse then drove less than a mile away and began
shooting wildly while circling two shopping centers in his Toyota. After
killing six people, the police said, Mr. Cruse took hostages and
barricaded himself in a store. He was captured after the police moved in
behind tear gas and a stun grenade.
Although his neighbors had became acquainted with Mr.
Cruse’s temper and his solitary ways, no one knew a great deal about him.
Mr. Cruse moved to this fast-growing town on
Florida’s central Atlantic Coast, south of Cape Canaveral, about two
years ago. If he ever said whether he was retired or unemployed, no one
remembered the occasion today.
A Farm in Kentucky
While Mr. Cruse and his wife, Millie, were unpacking
and settling into their redwood-trimmed bungalow, neighbors saw the
license plates on the couple’s car and speculated that they had come
from Kentucky. When a neighbor with relatives in Kentucky asked him
about the license plates, Mr. Cruse said his grandfather had owned a
farm in Kentucky. But he offered no details.
Except for Mr. Cruse’s skirmishes with children who
tried to use his lawn as a shortcut, the couple kept to themselves. At
some point – no one is sure when or how – neighbors learned that Mrs.
Cruse was seriously ill. Today. Neighbors disagreed on whether she had
Parkinson’s disease or Alzheimer’s disease.
Petition Had Sought Help
Although children often taunted Mr. Cruse, Ron Stearn,
who filed a complaint with the police about Mr. Cruse on April 17, said
the white-haired man always uttered the first insult. "It was always him
saying something and them responding," Mr. Stearn said.
Last fall, some neighbors signed a petition that said
he was dangerous and asked the authorities to help him. Others called
the police when he drove after their children in his car.
More recently, neighbors said he had brought out the
rifle at least twice. The police say they do not know where he obtained
the gun, a .223-caliber semiautomatic weapon that fires the same kind of
ammunition as the Army’s M-16 rifle. Each time he appeared at the door
with the weapon, neighbors said, he yelled, "Get off my land."
Near the house today neighbors stood on the sidewalk,
trading stories about Mr. Cruse. "Me and a couple of friends were just
walking home from another guy’s house when he shot," said Derek Suarez,
16 years old. "We used to just sit on our porch and he would run over
and yell at us."
Adults said he was not much friendlier to them than
he was with the children. Ray Carter, a 39-year-old construction worker,
said Mr. Cruse had aimed the rifle in his direction one evening when a
co-worker dropped him off across the street from the Cruses’ house.
"He pointed it right at us." Mr. Carter said, adding
that Mr. Cruse had yelled, "You made me lose my job. I’ll get you for
this."
Mr. Cruse did not shot, and Mr. Carter did not call
the police. "I figured somebody else would," he said. "I was going to go
back down there, but when I told my girlfriend, she said to just leave
him alone, and I did."
Mr. Stearn said he called the police after Mr. Cruse
chased his 6-year-old son Michael up the street on April 17. Mr. Cruse
made lewd remarks to the boy, Mr. Stearn said. He said the officer who
investigated his complaint left to interview Mr. Cruse and returned
later, warning Mr. Stearn to keep his son away.
Mr. Stearn complained that no officer followed up on
the case. The Palm Bay Police Chief, Chuck Simmons, said it was a "minor
matter" and that no follow-up had been warranted.
Neighbors knew of
simmering rage
Philadelphia Inquirer
April 25, 1987
Just before William
Bryan Cruse set out on a deadly shooting spree at the local shopping
mall, he had a quiet dinner with his wife, washed the dishes and put
them away.
The tranquil domestic scene ended
abruptly soon after the dishes were done, however, as Cruse exploded in
anger at a neighborhood child who had cut across his lawn. Grabbing for
a shotgun, he charged out the door in pursuit.
Like father, like
son?
Alleged Fla. cunman's
dad served time for shooting rapage
Philadelphia Daily News
April 25, 1987
The gunman accused of
slaughtering six people in this coastal city was a college-educated
former librarian from Kentucky whose alcoholic father was jailed for a
shooting into a prosecutor's house, it was reported today.
William Bryan Cruse, who was charged
yesterday with six counts of murder in a shooting rampage at two
shopping centers, had been convicted of assault in 1978, said police in
Lexington, Ky.
Typical evening
turned into a night of terror
Lexington Herald-Leader
April 25, 1987
PALM BAY, Fla. -- It
was an ordinary evening at an ordinary intersection, and they were all
doing such ordinary things: meeting a girlfriend, grabbing a slice of
pizza, pushing a shopping cart through the Publix or the Winn Dixie.
And then, the madness: Screams and
shots, chaos and panic, blood and death. When it was over, six people
were dead, 14 wounded, and scores forever branded by more than seven
hours of terror.
Mass murderer has
violent past considered 'crazy' by neighbors
The Phoenix Gazette
April 25, 1987
A man accused of
murdering six people in a shooting rampage at two shopping centers is a
sullen loner with a hair-trigger temper who fired shots in the air when
youngsters walked in his yard, neighbors say.
''The kids were all afraid of him,''
said Eucal Grant, 68, who lived three doors from William Bryan Cruse.
''I considered him off his head -- crazy. He just acted crazy. No one
talked to him, not even his next-door neighbors.''
Shooting suspect
says he doesn't recall shopping center rapage
San Jose Mercury News
April 25, 1987
A retired librarian
with thinning gray hair and stooped shoulders told police Friday he has
no memory of shooting to death six people and wounding 14 during a
rampage through two Palm Bay shopping centers, investigators said.
''I don't remember hurting anybody,"
William Cruse, 59, told detectives questioning him about the bloody
seven-hour siege that ended at 2 a.m. Friday with his capture, sources
said.
Hostahe tells of aid
to gunman
Philadelphia Inquirer
April 25, 1987
A 21-year-old woman
held hostage for six hours during a massacre in Florida says she wiped
blood from the gunman's hands, helped him smash store lights and fed him
potato chips in an effort to stay alive.
"I tried to get him to surrender. I
stopped him from killing himself and from killing me," Robin Brown, a
survivor of the shooting spree in Palm Bay, Fla., said in an interview
published yesterday in the New York Post.
Homosexuality fears
blamed in massacre
The Arizona Republic
May 2, 1987
William Bryan Cruse,
the retired Kentucky librarian accused of killing six people and
wounding 12 others in a supermarket massacre, appeared obsessed with
perceived accusations of homosexuality, it was reported Friday.
''He believed everybody thought he
was homosexual,'' an anonymous source described as close to the
investigation was quoted in the Orlando Sentinel as saying.
Police widows sue
San Jose Mercury News
May 9, 1987
The widows of two
police officers killed in the Palm Bay, Fla., shooting spree have filed
the first civil suits against William Cruse, accused of killing six
people in a 7 1/2-hour siege at two shopping centers. Ella Story Johnson,
23, and Laura Lorenzo Grogan, 25, seek awards of more than $10,000 in
the suits. Officers Gerald Johnson, 28, and Ronald Grogan, 27, and four
other people were killed in the April 23 shoot-out.
Two years later,
trial begins for 6 shopping mall killings
The Miami Herald
March 5, 1989
The second phase of
the twisted legal journey of accused Palm Bay shopping center gunman
William B. Cruse starts Monday in a Bartow, Fla., courtroom.
It has been almost two years since
the former Kentucky librarian is accused of a shooting spree April 23,
1987 in a crowded shopping center parking lot, killing six people,
including two Palm Bay police officers.
Killer gets death --
and 103 years
San Jose Mercury News
July 28, 1989
Retired librarian
William Bryan Cruse received two death sentences today for his shooting
rampage at two shopping plazas that left six people dead and 10 wounded.
Circuit Judge John Antoon sentenced
the 61-year-old Cruse to the electric chair in the shooting deaths of
two police officers who tried to halt the 1987 massacre in nearby Palm
Bay, a central Florida coastal city.
Shopping mall killer
who shot
30 people in '87 renews
appeal
The Miami Herald
August 23, 1996
Lawyers are again
trying to prove that William Cruse, who killed six people and wounded 24
in a prolonged shooting spree at a Palm Bay shopping mall, is mentally
unstable.
CRUSE, William Jr. (W/M)
DC# 117051 DOB: 11/21/27
Eighteenth Judicial
Circuit, Brevard County, Case #87-1763
Sentencing Judge: The
Honorable John Antoon II
Trial Attorneys: Marlene
Alva & Paul Arlt - Assistant Public Defenders
Attorney, Direct Appeal:
James Wulchak - Assistant Public Defender
Attorney, Collateral
Appeals: Linda McDermott, Registry
Date of Offense:
04/23/87
Date of Sentence:
07/28/89
Circumstances of
Offense:
William Cruse was
convicted of six murders, resulting in two death sentences for a
killing spree he ignited on 04/23/87.
Prior to the day of the
killings, Cruse obtained a semiautomatic assault rifle and
approximately 200 rounds of ammunition. On 04/23/87, he loaded
the assault rifle, a shotgun, and a pistol into his car and
headed in the direction of Palm Bay Shopping Center. Cruse
stopped at his neighbor’s house, the Rich residence, and opened
fire, striking 14 year-old John Rich, IV, who was playing
basketball outside his home. John’s family rushed outside when
they heard the gunshots, and Cruse fired at them as well.
Cruse continued to the
Publix grocery store in the Palm Bay Shopping Center, where he
gathered his firearms and ammunition, and approached the
entrance to the store. Cruse shot and killed Nabil Al-Hameli
and Emad Al-Tawakuly as they exited the Publix, and wounded
their friend Faisel Al-Mutairi. Cruse wounded Eric Messerbauer
and Douglas Pollack in a spray of bullets, and he killed Ruth
Green, who was shot as she pulled her car into the parking lot
of the shopping center. Cruse then walked over to the bodies of
Al-Hameli and Al-Tawakuly, who were lying on the ground, and
shot them again.
As authorities
approached the scene, Cruse drove over to the Sabal Palm
Shopping Center, where he again opened fire on the customers of
the Winn Dixie grocery store. Cruse reloaded the rifle and
fired numerous shots into Officer Ronald Grogan’s police car as
he approached, killing him.
Officer Gerald Johnson
was the next officer on the scene. Cruse targeted him, wounding
him in the leg. As Johnson scrambled for cover, Cruse followed
him into the parking lot. Cruse stalked the wounded officer and
shot him several more times, killing him. Cruse also fired at
the rescue team who were attempting to help the fallen officers.
Cruse then went into the
Winn Dixie, and hunted down a stream of people who were
attempting to escape through the back door of the grocery
store. He began firing, wounding many people, and killing
Lester Watson with a shot to the back.
Cruse re-entered the
Winn Dixie and found Judy Larson and Robin Brown hiding in the
women’s restroom. Cruse released Larson with orders to tell the
police to turn off the lights, while he held Brown hostage in
the store. Cruse tried to negotiate with police to bring his
car around and let him to leave Brevard County. If they agreed,
he would then allow police to kill him. Cruse released Brown
several hours later, at which time police fired tear gas and
stun grenades into the store. Cruse was arrested when he was
forced to leave the store.
Additional
Information:
At trial, Cruse pled not
guilty by reason of insanity. He claimed to suffer from
delusions that people were talking about him, trying to test his
sexuality and attempting to turn him into a homosexual.
On 03/20/02, Cruse was
found mentally incompetent to proceed in his postconviction
relief.
Cruse had no prior
incarceration history in the state of Florida.
04/25/89 Upon advisory sentencing,
the jury voted by the following counts:
Count
I: Murder – Al-Hameli 11
to 1 - Death
Count
II: Murder – Al-Tawakuly 11
to 1 - Death
Count
III: Murder – Green 10
to 2 - Death
Count IV: Murder – Grogan 11 to 1 - Death
Count V: Murder – Johnson 12 to 0 - Death
Count
VI: Murder – Watson 11 to
1 – Death
07/28/89 The defendant was sentenced
as followed:
Count
I: First-Degree Murder – Al-Hameli - Life
Count
II: First-Degree Murder – Al-Tawakuly -
Life
Count
III: First-Degree Murder – Green - Life
Count IV: First-Degree Murder – Grogan - Death
Count V: First-Degree Murder – Johnson - Death
Count VI: First-Degree Murder – Watson - Life
Count VII: Attempted First-Degree Murder - Life
Count VIII: Attempted First-Degree
Murder - Life
Count IX: Attempted First-Degree Murder - Life
Count X: Attempted First-Degree Murder - Life
Count XI: Attempted First-Degree Murder - Life
Count XII: Attempted First-Degree Murder - Life
Count XIII: Attempted First-Degree
Murder - Life
Count XIV: Attempted
First-Degree Murder - Life
Count XV: Attempted First-Degree Murder - Life
Count XVI: Attempted
First-Degree Murder - Life
Count XVII: Attempted First-Degree
Murder - Life
Count XVIII: Attempted First-Degree Murder - Life
Count XIX: Attempted
First-Degree Murder - Life
Count XX: Attempted First-Degree Murder - Life
Count XXI: Attempted First-Degree Murder - Life
Count XXII: Attempted First-Degree
Murder - Life
Count XXIII: Attempted First-Degree Murder - Life
Count XXV: Attempted
First-Degree Murder - Life
Count XXVII: Attempted First-Degree
Murder - Life
Count XXIX:
Attempted First-Degree Murder - Life
Count XXX: Attempted Second-Degree
Murder – 30 year
Count XXXI: Attempted Second-Degree Murder – 30 years
Count XXXIII: Attempted First-Degree Murder - Life
Count XXXIV: Attempted First-Degree
Murder - Life
Count XXXV: False
Imprisonment – 15 years
Count
XXXVI: Kidnapping - Life
*****
Case Information:
Cruse filed a Direct
Appeal in the Florida Supreme Court on 09/01/89. In that
appeal, he argued that the State committed a Bradyviolation when it withheld psychiatric information and that the
trial court erred in failing to allow the cross-examination of a
State’s expert. Cruse also claimed the trial judge gave an
improper insanity instruction and that the trial court erred in
failing to allow him to present surrebuttal evidence. In regard
to the penalty phase, Cruse argued the application of certain
aggravating factors. The Florida Supreme Court rejected Cruse’s
arguments and affirmed the convictions and death sentences on
10/24/91.
Next Cruse filed a
Petition for Writ of Certiorari in the United States Supreme
Court, which was denied on 06/08/92.
He filed a 3.850 Motion
on 08/25/93, which is currently pending in the State Circuit
Court. On 03/20/02, Cruse was found incompetent to proceed in
his postconviction relief efforts. No disposition was ever
reached on his 3.850 Motion.
FloridaCapitalCases.state.fl.us
Anger Remains 20 Years After Cruse's Rampage
William Cruse, 80, Not Likely To Be Executed
Local6.com
April 23, 2007
PALM BAY, Fla. -- Twenty
years ago Monday, William Byran Cruse killed six people and wounded
14 others during a shooting spree in Palm Bay. Two years later, he
was sentenced to death.
But as Cruse, the oldest person on Florida's death
row, turns 80 this year, officials say it's unlikely he'll be executed
before his natural life ends, Local 6 News partner Florida Today
reported.
Despite an insanity defense at trial, it wasn't until
five years ago that the courts declared him incompetent, which stalled
his execution.
"You can see he's a madman," said State Attorney
Norman Wolfinger, who prosecuted Cruse in 1989. "Whether or not he will
ever be competent to be executed is questionable. Certainly I have my
doubts that we will ever get to that point."
That likelihood angers some, who think Cruse has
lived too long since his murderous rampage on April 23, 1987.
"Don't have a death penalty if you're not going to
use it," said Satellite Beach resident Ronald Grogan Sr., whose son was
one of two Palm Bay police officers killed by Cruse.
"The system is not doing what it's supposed to do,"
he said. "When he was sent to prison, he wasn't like he is now. But if
you leave somebody in there for 20 years, anyone is going to go bats."
But others, including the woman the killer took as a
hostage, believe Cruse was insane from the start.
"If he's not going to be executed, then it's a crying
shame that he wasn't found insane and hospitalized for the last 20 years,"
said Robin Mucha, who still lives in Brevard.
Also adding to the possibility that Cruse's execution
won't go forward: a moratorium imposed on the Florida death penalty late
last year because of complications with an execution. The governor's
office is reviewing a report issued in March, and a decision is expected
soon.
Nightmare Begins
Late that Thursday afternoon 20 years ago, Cruse, a
59-year-old retired librarian, stormed out of his home on Palm Bay's
Creel Road to confront teens bouncing a basketball in a neighbor's
driveway. He was holding a shotgun.
Police said he had run-ins with them before, and he
fired and wounded a 14-year-old boy. Then Cruse went back inside and
retrieved an assault rifle. He continued to fire shots at his neighbors'
homes as he drove away.
Cruse took his white Toyota Tercel to the corner of
Palm Bay Road and Babcock Street, where he opened fire on two Florida
Tech students, killing both. Two other men were shot and injured as well.
Cruse then drove his car farther south. There he shot
and killed 67-year-old Ruth Greene, who was leaving the Publix
Supermarket. Cruse drove across Babcock and stopped at Winn-Dixie.
Officer Gerry Johnson arrived at the store and was
shot in the leg. He emptied his revolver at Cruse, but missed.
Johnson scrambled from his car and tried to reload.
Cruse stalked after him and shot him in the head.
In the weeks before he snapped, police would learn
that Cruse was taunted by neighborhood children and often argued with
them. There was an indecency report filed, and Cruse, who hated
homosexuals, later would tell investigators that Publix employees
thought he was gay.
'A Little Shootout'
Just before he killed the officer, Cruse took aim at
Ruben Torres, a 39-year-old mailman at the time, who had stopped at Winn-Dixie
to buy shrimp for dinner. When Torres went to the front of the store to
pay, he saw employees and other customers on the floor and Cruse in the
parking lot.
"I looked toward the glass doors, and I guess William
Cruse saw me because he shot at me right through the doors and
everything I had in my hand went flying," Torres recalled. "After that I
crawled up to the window and saw him walking across the parking lot. I
don't know where I got the strength from, but I took the doors off the
track and got out of the store."
As Cruse killed Johnson, Torres ran to his car and
ducked.
"I got my gun out of my glove compartment and we
started a little shootout," he said. "I was shooting at him and he was
shooting at me."
When Torres' went back to his car for more ammunition,
a police officer stopped him, thinking he was a second gunman.
Originally criticized, Torres since has been credited
with distracting Cruse, which allowed people to escape from Winn-Dixie.
He still has the nickel-plated, silver-handled pistol he used that
night.
"Nobody ever called me a hero, they called me a
vigilante," he said.
Tear Gas Ends Siege
When Officer Ron Grogan arrived at the scene, Cruse
shot eight times through the windshield, killing him. The officer had
been married only two months.
Cruse then ran into Winn-Dixie, firing at people
fleeing through a back exit. He shot 52-year-old Lester Watson in the
back.
Forty-five minutes after firing shots at his
neighbors, Cruse found two women hiding in the restroom. One he let go;
the other, Robin Mucha, would become his hostage.
The siege ended six hours later when Cruse released
Mucha and came out soon after, as tear-gas canisters were shot into the
store.
Cruse's defense from Day One was insanity --
something that Wolfinger, in the last case he prosecuted himself before
a jury, and his staff worked hard to dispel.
"It was obvious that there's something wrong and that
he wasn't operating on all cylinders, but that's not insanity,"
Wolfinger said.
Cruse's next competency hearing is scheduled for July.
No Visitors In Years
During his 18 years on death row, Cruse has spent 23
hours a day in his cell, said Gretl Plessinger, Florida Department of
Corrections spokeswoman. He is allowed a shower every other day.
She said Cruse has had no visitors in years. His
parents are listed as dead, and his wife returned to her native Turkey
after the killings. She suffered from Parkinson's disease.
Cruse's sister in Kentucky, where he grew up and
spent most of his adult life, has not visited. He moved to Brevard in
1985.
Cruse has well surpassed the average length of stay
for death row inmates of nearly 13 years and he was older than the
average age of a death row inmate -- 44 -- when he was convicted in
1989.
Carolyn Snurkowski, spokeswoman for the state
attorney general, said execution is still a possibility.
"We have had individuals before who need help and get
hospitalized and then go back to being on death row," she said.
Police Frustrated
Uniformed police officers in Palm Bay wear a blue
ribbon with the names of the two fallen officers, credited with saving
dozens of lives that night.
"It's a sad state for our society that you have a
person seen by over 100 people commit this crime," said Palm Bay Deputy
Chief Doug Muldoon, who was an officer at the crime scene. "Here we are
20 years later, you have family members that have been deceased that
never saw justice done."
Capt. Doug Dechenne, the lead negotiator for Palm
Bay's SWAT Team that night, takes his frustration a step further.
"I think we'd all agree that there are persons who
have committed such heinous crimes that they no longer deserve to live
amongst us," he said. "Cruse is one of those that justice will be served
if and when he is put to death. I would put my name up to be the one
that pushes the button."
