A court hearing for the 19-year-old alleged gunman in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting was canceled Tuesday with no immediate explanation, The Associated Press reports.
Nikolas Cruz, who is charged with 17 counts of murder, was not expected to attend the Tuesday court hearing, where prosecutors are seeking a judge’s permission to obtain DNA evidence and photographs of Cruz.
Cruz had waived his right to attend. He confessed to the shooting, and is being held at the Broward County Jail without bail.
According to The Associated Press, Cruz’s lawyers are also attempting to have the judge, Circuit Court Judge Elizabeth Scherer, removed in a separate filing, alleging she is biased in favor of the prosecution. {mosads}
The suspected Florida shooter’s canceled hearing comes on the heels of heated debates over whether Broward County law enforcement officers did everything they could to stop the attack nearly two weeks ago. Multiple news reports suggested several deputies took cover behind vehicles before officers from another department arrived at the scene.
Dozens of lawmakers have called for the resignation of Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel over his handling of the shooting. Israel rejected those calls in a CNN appearance on Sunday, and dismissed a letter sent from Florida state Rep. Bill Hager (R) to Gov. Rick Scott (R) calling for his ouster.
“It was a shameful letter. It was politically motivated,” Israel said. “I never met that man. He doesn’t know anything about me. And the letter was full of misinformation.”
“Of course I won’t resign,” he added.
The National Rifle Association (NRA) also accused Israel of neglecting his duty in a tweet after the sheriff spoke out against the organization during a CNN town hall last week.
“No Sheriff Israel you were the one that didn’t PROTECT these children and that is your job. You run the largest fully accredited sheriff’s office in the United States, yet your office failed this community,” the NRA responded in a tweet.