FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — It has been 1,702 days since they last looked into the eyes of their child, their spouse, but the families of 17 students and staff killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018 finally got their moment of reckoning.
Most were shocked by the mercy shown to the gunman who took their loved ones’ lives.
“There are 17 victims, including my beautiful daughter Jaime, and they did not receive justice today,” said Fred Guttenberg, describing his emotions as “shame, anger, devastation.”
“I’m going to go to the cemetery, and I’m going to tell my daughter what happened today,” Guttenberg said. “And I’m going to tell her I love her and always will.”
A Fort Lauderdale jury on Thursday rejected the death penalty for Parkland gunman Nikolas Cruz, the decision to spare his life coming swiftly, after seven hours of deliberation over two days at the Broward County Courthouse.
The verdict brought an end to the horrific testimony heard in the punishment phase of the trial, but the emotional wounds left by his Valentine’s Day rampage remain open and raw and permanent.
The jury’s decision to avoid the death penalty stunned many parents who spoke at a news conference after the sentencing, saying the verdict made their pain even worse.
”Someone killed 17 people, attempted to kill another 17, and we let them get away with it,” said Helena Ramsay’s mother, Anne Ramsay. “All the 17 families are so angry because we had to listen to how he just came back and finished off our loved ones.”
Linda Beigel Schulman lost her son Scott Beigel, a teacher and coach at MSD who was killed while trying to lead his students to safety during the shooting.
“If this was not the most perfect death penalty case, then why do we have the death penalty at all?” she said.
Judge Elizabeth Scherer will deliver a final sentence for the 24-year-old Cruz on Nov. 1.
“I sent my daughter to school and she was shot eight times," said Lori Alhadeff, of her daughter, Alyssa, 14. “I just don’t understand this.”
Said Alyssa’s father, Ilan Alhadeff: “I pray that animal suffers every day of his life in jail.”
For Max Schachter, whose 14-year-old son Alex was killed in the massacre, the gunman’s inhumanity justifies the maximum sentence.
“Prior to the shooting the Parkland murderer said he wanted to kill 20 people. He stopped after killing 17 including my sweet little boy Alex,” Schachter wrote on Twitter. “Afterwards he didn’t want to die. He wanted to live. Today he got everything he wanted. While our loved ones are in the cemetery.”
Tony Montalto, who lost 14-year-old daughter Gina, was irate after the verdict.
“She should not have been extinguished by this monster,” he told reporters. “Gina deserved better than she got. She deserved better.”
Addressing those who do not support the death penalty, Montalto said: “Trade places with me. You’ll change your mind.”
Much of the punishment phase of the trial included details of the challenges the gunman faced growing up, which may have influenced the jury’s decision to decline the death penalty.
Debbi Hixon, wife of Marjory Stoneman Douglas athletic director and coach Chris Hixon, killed while confronting the gunman, disagreed with that argument.
“I have a son with special needs. I have a son that checked a lot of those boxes that the shooter did as well,” she said. “My son’s not a murderer. My son is the sweetest person you could ever meet.”
Of the shooter, she said: “I hope that he understands the gift that he’s been given. I doubt that he will.”
Artist and activist Manuel Oliver vowed to continue the work of his anti-gun violence project, Change the Ref, which honors son Joaquin, who was 17 when he was killed at his high school.
“Time to get back to Joaquin and his amazing movement,” Oliver wrote on Twitter. “The world just saw how to get away with murder in a nation whose system is dangerously flawed. Let’s fix this awful narrative. Viva GUAC and the 16 other victims of the Parkland shooting!”
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