Status: 03.11.2022 08:00 a.m
The attack on Parkland High School was one of the deadliest in US history. Now the verdict has been announced: the assassin must be imprisoned for life. Relatives reacted disappointed.
More than four years after the assassination in Parkland, Florida, the 24-year-old perpetrator was sentenced to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole. The judge in charge announced the verdict.
The jury had already ruled in favor of life imprisonment in mid-October, despite calls from prosecutors and victims’ relatives for a death penalty. The relatives expressed incomprehension and disappointment when the verdict was announced.
Schoolgirls protest against gun violence on Capitol Hill in the US capital Washington (archive photo from 2018).
Image: AP
One of the deadliest attacks
In February 2018, the then 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz shot dead 17 people with a semi-automatic rifle at a school, including 14 teenagers and three adults. Several other people were injured. This is considered one of the deadliest attacks on a school in US history.
After the massacre, students demonstrated for stricter gun laws in the United States, triggering nationwide protests. A month after the crime, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in the US capital Washington. Little has changed in the gun laws to this day.