A Florida judge formallysentenced Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz to life without parole, according to multiple reports. Cruz killed 14 students and three staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018.
Last month, a juryfailed to unanimously agreeto the death penalty and sentenced theParkland, Florida, school shooter to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Cruz, 24,pleaded guiltylast October to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder in the 2018 shooting. During his sentencing trial, which began in July, prosecutors had sought the death penalty while defense attorneys asked for life in prison.
The judge sentenced Cruz to serve17 life sentences with no possibility of parolewith the sentences to run consecutively, according to CNN.
Cruz also received life in prison with a minimum of 20 years, for 14 of the 17 counts of attempted murder, and life without the possibility of parole for the other three counts of attempted murder, CNN reports. These will also run consecutively.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.RHONA WISE/AFP/Getty
Cruz’s attorney, public defender Gordon Weekes, did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
“Real justice would be done if every family here were given a bullet and your AR-15 and we got to pick straws, and each one of us got to shoot one at a time at you, making sure that you felt every bit of it,” said Linda Beigel Schulman, according to AP. Schulman’s son,teacher Scott Beigel, was shot while leading students to safetyin his classroom.
Emma Gonzalez, center, and other youth activists against gun violence.Us Kids documentary
The school shooting became a catalyst for efforts to curb gun violence. Just five weeks after the massacre, a coalition that began with student survivors of the Parkland shooting staged theMarch for Our Lives rallyin Washington, D.C., then launched a cross-country caravan to engage local communities in an effort to change gun laws.
Among the memorable moments from that rally, studentEmma Gonzalez, who became one of Parkland’s most prominent voices after the shooting,stood silentfor most of her time on stage as a timer counted the six minutes and 20 seconds it took the gunman to complete his carnage.
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According toThe Washington Post, some family members of victims left the courtroom while the recordings played. One woman pleaded for the video to be shut off, theSouth Florida Sun-Sentinelreported.
“We were just sitting — kind of like sitting ducks,” Gilbert, who took the stand, said of the massacre. “We had no way to protect ourselves.”
The fatal victims of the attack were Luke Hoyer, 15; Alyssa Alhadeff, 14; Aaron Feis, 37; Jaime Guttenberg, 14; Martin Duque, 14; Chris Hixon, 49; Scott Beigel, 35; Nicholas Dworet, 17; Joaquin Oliver, 17; Cara Loughran, 14; Peter Wang, 15; Gina Montalto, 14; Carmen Schentrup, 16; Alaina Petty, 14; Meadow Pollack, 18; Alex Schachter, 14, and Helena Ramsey, 17. All died from fatal gunshot wounds.
Seventeen others were injured in the shooting.
source: people.com
