Parkland school mass shooter sentenced to life in prison 

Nikolas Cruz, the mass shooter who killed 17 students and a staff member at a Florida high school in February 2018, was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday after hearing testimony from survivors and the relatives of victims. 

Last year, Cruz pleaded guilty to premeditated murder by opening fire on Marjory Stoneman Douglass High School in Parkland after he had been expelled from the school. He used an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle to carry out the attack he had planned for seven months. 

During the attack, which only lasted seven minutes, he fired more than 140 rounds and killed 17 students and a school staff member. 

Last month, a 12-member jury voted to spare Cruz, 24, the death penalty after they could not unanimously agree in favor of his execution. He was formally sentenced on Wednesday to life in prison without parole. 

Broward County Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer agreed to a prosecution request to allow relatives of Cruz’s victims to address the court. Many of the relatives addressed Cruz directly during their testimony. 

“This creature has no redeemable value," Max Schachter, whose 14-year-old son Alex was killed in the massacre, said on Tuesday at court.

 "Other prisoners you will encounter in your new life will inflict that pain upon you, hopefully, 17 times over again, until you are screaming for mercy, just like your victims,” Schachter added.

“We hope that you, the monster who did this to our son, endure a painful existence in your remaining days,” said Eric Wikander, the father of student Ben Wikander, who has been struggling to recover from his wounds.

"I'm sorry that you never saw the love that the world is capable of giving," said Victoria Gonzalez, a former classmate of Cruz and whose boyfriend was killed in the shooting. "My justice does not lie in knowing if you live or if you die. My justice lives in knowing that I experienced a love that a lot of people go their whole lifetimes without experiencing."