Parkland Massacre Victims' Families Break Down in Court as Shooter Is Spared the Death Penalty
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The heartbroken families of the Parkland school massacre victims are delivering their final statements in court today as shooter Nikolas Cruz is set to be formally sentenced to life in prison.
On Valentine's Day 2018, Cruz opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killing 14 students and three school staff members, and injuring 17 others.
It was the deadliest mass shooting to reach a jury trial in the U.S.
The sentencing today follows a months-long trial in which the 12-person jury could not reach an unanimous decision on whether Cruz, 24, should receive the death penalty or be given life in prison without the possibility of parole. Three jurors did not agree with the death penalty, and so the shooter was spared.
Once the verdict was reached last month, victims' parents and relatives voiced their confusion and outrage, saying that they had lost all faith in the justice system.
And today, survivors and families of those killed expressed their disappointment in different ways. Some broke down in court, addressing Cruz directly and often attacking his defense team for allowing a convicted murderer to continue to live and be cared for despite having taken the lives of so many innocent, good people; others reacted from afar, voicing their efforts to move on from the horror.
Max Schachter, whose son, Alex, 14, was killed by Cruz, accused the shooter's defense attorneys of "making the mental health crisis in America worse" by painting Cruz as a mentally ill individual in need of help, rather than a killer, per ABC News.
"The defense, in their closing argument, said if he had just had the proper diagnosis, things would be different," Schacter said. "Nothing would’ve changed. … He was on medicine after medicine … and he still wants to kill."
He added that Cruz grew up "in a loving home" with a mother who tried to help him. ... He had well over 200 individual sessions with mental health professionals. … They tried everything, they couldn’t have given him more services."
"But you can’t fix evil," Schachter said.
"He hunted down innocent children and staff, terrified then tortured them, blew their heads apart like a water balloon and enjoyed it," he continued, adding that Cruz "does not deserve to live amongst us."
Anne Ramsay, whose daughter, Helena Ramsay, 17, was killed by Cruz, called the admitted murderer "pure evil," CNN reported.
She said her daughter was a "lovely girl" who was an "angel to me," and recalled the last words she said to her.
On the day she was killed, Ramsay said Helena told her, "'Bye mommy, love you,' and she skipped off." Later in the day, Helena texted Ramsay a "smiley face with the heart" emoji because Ramsay had included a cookie in her lunch pack.
Ramsay then recalled the moment she learned of the shooting and was forced to wait hours to know the status of her daughter's condition.
She slammed the school district and sheriff’s office, saying they notified her family last because of their race. She also added that if Cruz had been Black, he would have been stopped by security before even entering the school on the day of the shooting.
Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter, Jaime, 14, was also killed in the massacre, did not deliver a statement in court today, as he has before, and instead shared his thoughts on the sentencing on Twitter.
"My life is no longer dependent on the outcome of this trial and delivering another impact statement will not make me feel better," he wrote.
(1,15) Will it make me feel better?
Today court will be back in session for victim impact statements and then tomorrow for the official sentencing of the monster who murdered Jaime and 16 others. As most of you know, during the trial we were given the opportunity to deliver a pic.twitter.com/KHPGVWWzki— Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) November 1, 2022
He said that last week he watched the video of his daughter being shot. "She made it to within one second of safety, only for him to kill her with a single AR 15 shot," he said of Cruz.
With the shooter's fate already decided by the jury, Guttenberg said he wants to put the entire situation out of his mind. "I have no need to think about him or to address him," he wrote. "I will think about him only two more times. The first time will be when I sit and watch the formal sentencing. The second time will be when I read news reporting of the prison justice that he will eventually receive."
"Going forward, I plan to focus more on those I love," Guttenberg added.
Meghan Petty, the sister of Alaina Petty, 14, who died in the shooting, said she strongly disagrees with the sentencing, and called Cruz "a remorseless monster who deserves no mercy," per CNN.
"I feel betrayed by our judicial system," she said. "In this court, we have shown the world that if one stretches the truth, they can get away with not only murder but mass murder … An incredibly dangerous and ridiculous precedent that has been set here will affect the lives of children across the nation."
Petty said she's been forced to relive the pain of losing Alaina since her death four years ago, and she cannot understand why Cruz's life is being spared.
"I understand that he believes his life has been hard," she said of Cruz. "I don’t think a single person in this courtroom today has had an easy life, yet the rest of us keep trying to do our best and he believes that he is above that charge. He chose to turn to violence and is now being protected from the same punishment he needlessly inflicted on my sister because he’s too scared to receive what he exuberantly dished out."
With tears in her eyes, she added of the shooter, "He gets daily meals, a roof over his head and a bed to sleep in now. My sister’s roof is six feet of dirt and her bed is a coffin."
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