ESCAPES EXECUTION
Nikolas Cruz trial: Parkland shooting gunman sentenced to life after killing 17 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School
PARKLAND school shooter Nikolas Cruz avoids the death penalty and will be sentenced to life in prison more than four years after he senselessly massacred 17 people in 2018.
On Valentine's Day 2018, 14 students and three faculty members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School were slaughtered when Cruz, armed with an AR-15, walked onto campus and opened fire inside a hallway.
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After three months of grueling emotional testimony, a jury decided that Cruz should be sentenced to life in prison rather than be executed.
The jury ultimately decided on a life-in-prison sentence for all 17 counts of first-degree murder.
Jurors decided that mitigating factors presented by the defense, including Cruz's exposure to drugs and alcohol as a fetus, played a part in their decision to rule against the death penalty.
Under law, Judge Elizabeth Scherer cannot overrule the jury's decision.
Dozens of family members of victims in the courtroom appeared angry and baffled as the judge read the jury's verdicts.
Cruz showed little emotion as he looked down at the defense table during the proceeding.
Corey Hixon - whose father, Chris Hixon, died in the shooting - exited the courtroom midway through the readings.
Tony Montalto, whose daughter, Gina, was killed in the Parkland massacre, called the jury’s decision not to impose the death penalty “pretty unreal”.
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“The monster that killed them gets to live another day," he said after the ruling, adding, "society has to really look and re-examine who and what is a victim.”
Cruz's brother, Zachary, released a statement, saying he agreed with the jury's decision on a life imprisonment sentence, which he called "worse fate than death".
"My thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the victims of my brother’s crimes. In the coming days and weeks, I will have much to say about the Broward State Attorney’s office and that Broward School division," Zachary said.
"Today is not the day for that. Today is a day for the victims to find peace in knowing that this legal process is finally over."
"My brother was sentenced to life in prison today. While many people wanted death, I know my brother will be forced to live with what he did for what may be a very long time.
"In the long run, that may be a fate worse than death, and it is the fate he deserves for committing heinous crimes against innocent people.”
During her closing arguments, defense attorney Melisa McNeill called Cruz a "brain-damaged, broken, mentally ill person" and shifted the blame toward his birth mother - who she said used "drugs and drank alcohol" while pregnant with Cruz.
“And in a civilized, humane society, do we kill brain-damaged, mentally ill, broken people?” McNeill asked, “Do we? I hope not.”
Lead prosecutor Michael Satz called Cruz's actions "a systemic massacre" and described how the shooter “hunted his victims".
Cruz will be formally sentenced on November 1.
Relatives, along with the students and teachers Cruz wounded, will be given the opportunity to speak at the sentencing hearing.
During the months-long trial, Satz delivered a harrowing read-out to the jury where Cruz proclaimed he was going to be the "next school shooter of 2018".
"Hello, my name is Nik. I'm going to be the next school shooter of 2018," Satz, twice, read out.
'I CAN'T WAIT'
"My goal is at least 20 people with an AR-15 and some tracer rounds. It’s going to be a big event and when you see me on the news, you’ll know who I am.
"You’re all going to die. Ah yeah, I can’t wait. Ah yeah, I can’t wait."
Prosecutors revealed that after firing 139 shots in his "heinous, atrocious and cold" slaughter, Cruz fled the scene by blending in with other fleeing students.
The then-19-year-old shooter went to a Subway inside a , ordered an "icy" drink and sat on a bench, the court was told.
Cruz then walked into a nearby and asked a student who had fled the school and whose sister the gunman had just shot for a ride.
He was arrested after walking about a mile away from the McDonald’s.
'I'M SORRY'
Cruz, 23, pleaded guilty a year ago to 17 counts of first-degree murder and 17 counts of attempted first-degree murder.
As the charges against Cruz were read out, he lowered his head and his voice cracked as he admitted "guilty".
Following the pleas, Cruz made a tearful, frantic statement to the court, apologizing for what he did.
"I'm very sorry for what I did and I have to live with this every day," Cruz said to the courtroom as the Parkland victims' families sat behind him.
"If I were to get a second chance, I would do everything in my power to try and help others," he said rapidly.
"And I am doing this for you, and I do not care if you do not believe me, and I love you and I know that you don't believe me, but I have to live with this every day and it brings me nightmares and I cannot live with myself some times, but I try to push through because I know that's what you guys would want me to do."
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He then continued to make a bizarre rant about drugs after previously admitting to taking "lots of drugs," including Xanax and marijuana.
"I hate drugs, and I believe this country would do better if everybody would stop smoking marijuana and doing all these drugs and causing racism and violence out in the streets."
Cruz added that he believes the victims' families should be the ones to determine his fate and not the jury.
"I hope you give me a chance to try to help others, I believe it's your decision to decide where I go and whether I live or die, not the jury's decision; I believe it's your decision. I'm sorry," he said.
HORRIFIC ATTACK
Cruz arrived at MSD's Parkland, , campus via an at 2.19pm, twenty-one minutes before classes were due to end for the day.
According to Satz, Cruz hid his tactical vest in a backpack and wore a Marjory Stoneman Douglas JROTC polo shirt to blend in.
A security worker noticed Cruz and radioed a colleague to report that he was walking "purposefully" toward Building 12. However, they made no attempt to pursue the suspect or declare a "Code Red," which would've initiated an immediate lockdown of the school.
Cruz, a troubled teen who had been expelled from MSD two years earlier, entered the campus through an unmanned security gate, clutching a backpack and a large black rifle bag.
He unzipped his rifle bag in a stairwell of the 30-classroom block. Cruz quickly assembled his AR-15 rifle and, within 15 seconds, opened fire - indiscriminately shooting at students and teachers as they desperately clamored for cover in classrooms and hallways.
Across a period of six terrifying minutes, 17 people were fatally gunned down, and 17 others were wounded. Hundreds more lives would be irrevocably altered.
Cruz was taken into custody less than two hours later, having initially fled the campus by blending in with the crowds of screaming students running for their lives.
Cruz calmly told a psychologist he picked Valentine’s Day to massacre 17 people because no one loved him, and wanted to ruin the holiday forever for anyone associated with the school.
“Because I thought no one would love me,” Cruz told Robert Denney, a Missouri neuropsychologist who testified during his trial.
“I didn’t like Valentine’s Day and I wanted to ruin it for everyone."
“Do you mean for the family members of the kids that were killed?” Denney asked.
“No, for the school. The holiday will never be celebrated there again, Cruz replied.
MISSED RED FLAGS
In the wake of the Parkland tragedy, it emerged that a decade's worth of red flags concerning Cruz and numerous disturbing displays of behavior had been overlooked or ignored by officials.
Neighbors raised concerns about Cruz as early as age nine when he got into a rock-throwing fight with another boy.
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As he got older, he showed a disturbing propensity for violence towards animals, regularly expressed his enthusiasm for knives and guns, and even began introducing himself as "a school shooter."
Deputies with the Broward County Sheriff's Office were alerted to the teen's behavior several times over the years, and even the received two tips about Cruz and the potential threat he posed to schools - but those warnings were dismissed.
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