«I don’t know how you could look that calm after doing something like that,» the officer said.
The cop who slapped the cuffs on Nikolas Cruz knows the streets surrounding Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School like the back of his own hand.
So while other first responders descended on the Parkland, Fla. school following the Feb. 14 shooting, Coconut Creek officer Michael Leonard got into his squad car and zoomed through the area.
«(Cruz) was on foot, so I knew he couldn’t be far,» Leonard, a 17-year veteran with the Coconut Creek department, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel on Friday. «There was no senior personnel there to direct me or tell me what to do. I decided to head out on my own, alone.»
Having grown up in the area, Leonard knew the shortcuts.
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«I drove through grass. I drove over medians and curbs. That was really the only way to get around,» Leonard, 46, said, recalling that the area was in «absolute gridlock» following the shooting, which left 17 people dead and dozens more injured.
Suddenly, while driving down Wyndham Lakes Drive a few miles from Stoneman Douglas, Leonard spotted a young man who matched the description of the suspected shooter: black jeans, a cap, maroon sweater.
«For some reason, I was just led to that area. I don’t know why,» Leonard said. «It was just me and him on that quiet road. We were all alone, just me and him.»
Leonard was stunned by how young Cruz looked.
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«He looked like a student. He was just a skinny little guy,» he said.
Getting out of the car with his gun drawn, Leonard shouted at Cruz to surrender. The 19-year-old gunman complied.
«It was probably overwhelming to him,» Leonard said. «I just flooded him with commands. I told him to turn around, and he looked me right in the eye, looking down the barrel of my gun.»
Leonard refused to divulge what he and Cruz talked about as other officers rushed to Wyndham Lakes Drive. But he revealed that the suspected mass murderer appeared «eerily calm.»
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«I don’t know how you could look that calm after doing something like that,» Leonard said.
While waiting for other officers to arrive, Leonard only had one thought in his mind: keep Cruz in cuffs.
«Nothing around me mattered,» he said. «I guess I experienced tunnel vision.»
Leonard has since been dubbed a hero by his police chief and Coconut Creek’s mayor.
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«I’m trying to figure out if I can accept that title,» he said. «I’m not really a spotlight kind of guy. But I’m proud that I stopped him. Somebody had to stop him.»
Leonard’s heroism stands in sharp contrast to some of the law enforcement failures that have been revealed in the aftermath of the Valentine’s Day massacre.
The FBI admitted that it failed to follow up on credible and disturbing tips about Cruz in the weeks leading up to the school shooting.
And while Cruz methodically killed his former classmates and teachers with an AR-15 assault rifle, ex-school resource officer Scot Peterson waited outside the school for minutes.
But, for Leonard, it’s not the failings of police that he can’t stop thinking about.
«I’m just constantly thinking of the families, the hurt, the devastation,» said the married father of two teenagers. «I don’t know when and if they’ll ever recover from this. That’s been so heavy on my heart.»
