Parents of the victims of the 2018 Parkland, Florida, high school shooting are speaking out on Thursday following a Broward County jury sentence that would give their children’s killer life in prison – not the death penalty.
Fred Guttenberg, who lost 14-year-old daughter Jaime Guttenberg in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre, said he hopes that the shooter, 24-year-old Nikolas Cruz, dies in prison.
“I’m stunned. I’m devastated. There are 17 victims that did not receive justice today,” he told reporters. “My daughter – you’ll notice she was the 16th of the 17 to be read today. She was shot running down a hallway. Now, what mitigating factor was it that they used on her? Were they going to suggest that he didn’t have the fine motor skill to shoot that gun as she was running down the hallway?”
“This jury failed our families today. But, I will tell you, the monster’s going to go to prison. And in prison, I hope and pray he receives the kind of mercy from prisoners that he showed to my daughter and the 16 others,” Guttenberg said. “He is going to go to prison, and he will die in prison. And I will be waiting to read that news on that.”
JURY RECOMMENDS PARKLAND SCHOOL SHOOTER NIKOLAS CRUZ GETS LIFE IN PRISON, NOT DEATH PENALTY
Guttenberg said he did not know how the jury had reached its conclusions.
“Because of what happened to our families, we are all in this position now of doing the work that we do around this country to keep this from happening to another family. And this decision today only makes it more likely that the next mass shooting will be attempted,” he added.
PARKLAND SCHOOL SHOOTER NIKOLAS CRUZ ADDRESSES COURT AFTER GUILTY PLEA: ‘I LOVE YOU’
Guttenberg said he would visit his daughter’s grave to tell her what happened and that he will always love her.
The parents of 14-year-old Alyssa, Lori and Dr. Ilan Alhadeff, also voiced their disbelief.
“We are beyond disappointed with the outcome today,” Lori said. “This should have been the death penalty, 100%. Seventeen people were brutally murdered on Feb. 14, 2018. I sent my daughter to school, and she was shot eight times. I am so beyond disappointed and frustrated with this outcome. I do not understand. I just don’t understand this.”
“I’m disgusted with our legal system. I’m disgusted with those jurors,” her husband added. “I’m disgusted with this system that you can allow 17 dead and 17 others shot and wounded and not give the death penalty. What do we have the death penalty for? What is the purpose of it? You set a precedent today.”
“You set a precedent for the next mass killing, and nothing happens to you,” he continued. “You’ll get life in jail. I’m sorry, that is not OK. As a country, we need to stand up and say that’s not OK. I pray that that animal suffers every day of his life in jail. And he should have a short life.”
“Shooting some victims more than once on a pass. Pressing the barrel of his weapon to my daughter’s chest. That doesn’t outweigh that poor little what’s-his-name had a tough upbringing?” asked Tony Montalto, the father of 14-year-old Gina Montalto.
“And he should be afraid every second of the day of his life,” Linda Beigel Schulman, the mother of 35-year-old teacher Scott Beigel, said of Cruz.
The jury’s recommendation came following seven hours of deliberations over two days — ending a three-month trial.
The jury failed to reach the unanimous vote required under Florida law.
Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer set sentencing for Nov. 1, when victim impact statements will be delivered.
Cruz, 24, pleaded guilty last year to the murders of 14 students and three staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018 – a date that he said he picked so the school would never celebrate Valentine’s Day again.
Cruz fired volleys from an AR-15-style semiautomatic down hallways and into classrooms for about seven minutes, returning to those who lay wounded to kill them.
The shooter said he purchased the rifle almost exactly a year before the shooting and began to seriously plan it about seven months in advance.
He researched previous mass shooters, saying he tried to learn from their experience.
At one point in the deliberations, jurors came back to the courtroom to have the testimony of two doctors read back to them about the mental state of Cruz.
Cruz’s lead attorney, Melisa McNeill, and her team argued that his birth mother’s heavy drinking during pregnancy left him with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.
His adoptive mother could not cope with his severe mental and emotional deficits, which were never properly treated, McNeill told jurors.
Fox News’ Louis Casiano and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
