Parkland, Florida high school gunman pleads guilty to seventeen 2018 murders

“I’m so sorry for what I did, I carry the weight every day. “ Nikolas Cruz, author of a 2018 high school massacre in Florida, apologized Wednesday, October 20, to the families of his victims gathered in a court near Miami, after pleading guilty to the seventeen murders he he committed with an assault rifle.

Hunched over, head bowed, the 23-year-old, who was 19 on the day of the killing, said in an uncertain voice in a crowded courtroom:

“It gives me nightmares, I find it hard to live with myself sometimes. (…) If I were to be given a second chance, I would do everything in my power to help others. “

Addressing the families of the victims, he said: “I think it’s up to you to decide where I go, whether I live or die, not the jury. “ Some relatives of the seventeen people killed by Nikolas Cruz were in the room. They listened, their eyes cloudy, to the freezing account of events given by the prosecutor. The shooter will now have to be presented to a jury for his sentence to be fixed. Prosecutors have confirmed they will seek the death penalty.

Nikolas Cruz had opened fire on Valentine’s Day with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, from which he had been kicked the previous year for “Disciplinary reasons”.

Firearms sales increased

The shooting is the worst school massacre in the United States since the Sandy Hook school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, in which twenty-seven people were killed.

Despite his psychiatric history, Nikolas Cruz was able to legally buy an assault rifle. He had preceded his crimes by the recording of a video, in which he said:

“Let my massacre begin today. Let all the frightened children run and hide. In the face of the wrath of my power, they will learn who I am. “

“I am nothing, I am nobody, my life is nothing and has no meaning”, he added, specifying that he would go a little later to his old school in an Uber vehicle armed with an AR-15 rifle.

The Parkland drama had aroused immense emotion. A historic mobilization had been led by several surviving high school students and by the parents of the victims.

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It had culminated on March 24, 2018 when a march had brought together 1.5 million people across the country, the largest national demonstration for a better regulation of firearms in the history of the States. -United, giving some a glimpse of the possibility of legislative change.

It has not happened. On the contrary, firearms sales have increased in recent years in the United States, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. Massive shootings remain a scourge in the country, but blockades in Congress, under the influence of the arms lobby, make any major breakthrough on the subject unlikely.

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The World with AFP

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