Parkland School Shooter Nikolas Cruz Shares A Message To The Victims’ Families: “I’m Sorry, Love You”
This Wednesday, Nikolas Cruz plead guilty to murder for the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 dead.
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The 23-year-old now faces a minimum of life in prison and maximum of the death penalty, which will be decided by a jury in the upcoming sentencing phase of the trial. A penalty trial will determine if Cruz will receive a sentence of death or life in prison without parole.
Following his guilty plea after the 34 charges were read to him, he then apologized to family members of the victims in a short speech during court: “I am very sorry for what I did, and I have to live with it every day. If I were to get a second chance, I would do everything in my power to try to help others,” he said. “I am doing this for you, and I do not care if you do not believe me. And I love you, and I know you don’t believe me, but I have to live with this every day, and it brings me nightmares and I can’t live with myself sometimes, but I try to push through because I know that’s what you guys would want me to do.”
“I hate drugs, and I believe this country would do better if everyone would stop smoking marijuana and doing all these drugs and causing racism and violence out in the streets,” he continued. “I’m sorry, and I can’t even watch TV anymore. And I’m trying my best to maintain my composure, and I just want you to know I’m really sorry, and 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. I believe it’s your decision. I’m sorry.”
His plea comes more than three years after the Valentine’s Day shooting in Parkland, Florida, in which he murdered 17 students and faculty members and injured 17 others — marking the moment as the deadliest high school shooting in US history.
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