The jury in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has sentenced 24-year-old Nikolas Cruz to life in jail for massacring 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland on Valentine’s Day in 2018. Cruz had pleaded guilty last year to killing 17 people and hurting 17 others.
Cruz was 19 when he committed the heinous crime. Two years before the massacre, he was expelled from the same school. Armed with AR-15, the killer had opened fire indiscriminately in the hallway of the school just before classes were to end for the day. Among those killed were 14 students and three teaching staff.
Who Is 24-Year-Old Nikolas Cruz?
Cruz had fled from the scene of the massacre but was arrested two hours later. The Parkland massacre became one of the worst mass shootings in American history.
Investigators had later stumbled upon a chilling video that Cruz had recorded the same morning. In the video, he was seen bragging about his plans to commit mass murder. He had said, “With the Power of My AR, You Will All Know Who I Am.”
Addressing the court, Cruz apologised to the victims’ families as he said, “I’m very sorry for what I did and I have to live with this every day.”
He added, “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.”
Cruz was born on 24 September 1998 in Margate in Florida and was adopted at birth by Lynda Cruz and Roger Cruz. He went to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where he committed the massacre aged 19. Both his parents died in 2004 and 2017 respectively. He was orphaned just three months before the mass shooting.
Cruz was reported for behavioral issues and, according to The Washington Post, had to be ‘entrenched in the process for getting students help rather than referring them to law enforcement.’ He was transferred to many school within a span of three years to deal with his issues before being expelled by Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2017 for disciplinary reasons.
Will He Ever Be Released From Prison?
The jury’s recommendation for life sentence instead of the death penalty evoked angry reactions from the victims’ families. According to the CNN, Tony Montalto, the father of 14-year-old victim Gina Montalto, called the jury’s recommendation a ‘gut punch’ for the Parkland families, lamenting that ‘the monster that killed them gets to live to see another day.’
The jury also recommended that Cruz be sentenced to life prison without the possibility of parole. This means that the 24-year-old killer may never be released from prison.