Parkland families share anguish at Nikolas Cruz sentencing hearing: ‘Because of you, I will never feel safe’

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Nikolas Cruz’s sentencing hearing was marked by heart-wrenching impact statements from families of the Parkland school shooting victims and survivors.

Parents, grandparents and spouses of those killed and injured in the 2018 attack shared their anguish in court on Tuesday, weeks after Cruz, 24, was spared from the death sentence by a non-unanimous jury.

Stacey Lippel, a teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who was injured in the shooting, said that the massacre forever changed her and she now finds herself constantly on edge, checking exits and thinking of worst-case scenarios. Ms Lippel said the opportunity to give a victim impact statement only offered “a crumb of justice.”

“I’m broken and altered, and I will never look at the world the same way again,” Ms Lippel said, per CNN. “I used to be eternally happy and relatively carefree, but now, I have worries and fears that seem unreasonable to most.”

“Because of you, I check for exits wherever I am. Because of you, I think of the worst-case scenario for me and my family. Because of you, I will never feel safe again.”

Meanwhile, Theresa Robinovitz, whose 14-year-old granddaughter was killed in the massacre, decried the jury’s decision to sentence Cruz to life without parole instead of handing him the death penalty.

“I’m too old to see you live out your life sentence but I hope your every breathing moment on Earth is miserable, and you repent for your sins, Nikolas, and burn in hell,” Ms Robinovitz said.

The parents of a 17-year-old survivor also confronted Cruz during the sentencing. Bree and Eric Wikander recounted how their son’s doctor likened his injuries to something “similar to what a soldier would [suffer] in combat.”

“Whatever pain you experience in prison will be a fraction of what Ben endured,” Mr Wikander, whose son Ben was shot three times in the arm, stomach and back, said.

Cruz travelled to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine’s Day 2018 armed with an AR-15. He murdered 14 students and three staff members and injured 17 others. In October 2021, Cruz pleaded guilty to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder.

On 13 October, a trial jury found that “especially heinous” aggravating factors necessary to reach a verdict of death had been proved during the trial, but three jurors found they were not outweighed by mitigating circumstances.

Cruz’s attorney, Melisa McNeill blamed his birth mother’s excessive drinking during pregnancy, which left him with foetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

Under Florida law, all members of the jury must agree on the death penalty or the sentence automatically becomes a life sentence.

On Tuesday, Max Schachter, who lost his 14-year-old son Alex in the shooting, criticised the defence’s success in avoiding the death penalty, saying that “you can’t fix evil.”

“The defence, in their closing argument, said if he had just had the proper diagnosis, things would be different,” Mr Schacter said in his victim impact statement. “He was on medicine after medicine … and he still wants to kill.”

He added: “He had well over 200 individual sessions with mental health professionals. … They tried everything, they couldn’t have given him more services.”

“He hunted down innocent children and staff, terrified then tortured them, blew their heads apart like a water balloon and enjoyed it.”

Testimony by survivor Samantha Mayor was also read in court by her mother, Ellen Mayor.

“I’ve learned that the beginning of every year brings a lot of heartache for me … for the anniversary of when I saw death before my eyes,” Ms Ellen read.

“Now we all have to breathe the same air of someone who wanted us to never take another breath.”

The brother of a 14-year-old victim called Cruz a “murdering bastard,” not a “victim of mental health issues.”

“I will never be able to watch TV with her, talk about books with her. Every day, I walk by her room and see that it’s empty,” Anthony Montalto said.

“Every day, I see pictures and I think about her. Every day, I wake up and I remember that she will not be there.”

Mr Montalto said he couldn’t bear the reality that Cruz would get to live while his sister, Gina, “rots in her grave.”

Meanwhile, Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter Jaime was killed by Cruz, decide not to give a victim impact statement.

“Because I have decided that it simply won’t change reality or the way I feel. It won’t make me feel better.,” Mr Guttenberg tweeted. “The reality is that I will still visit Jaime at the cemetery and the monster’s fate will not change. It has already been decided.”

During a three-month trial, the state described how Cruz planned his attack. He researched other mass shooters online, made extensive preparations for his attack and recorded a video where he outlined his plans.

Prosecutor Mike Satz outlined the extent of planning Cruz put into carrying out the school shooting and walked jurors through the graphic moments of the attack – including how he shot and killed some terrified victims at point-blank range.