Parkland school massacre: Florida jury recommends life in prison for gunman Nikolas Cruz as victims’ families say ‘it should have been death penalty’
A Florida jury has recommended a sentence of life in prison for gunman Nikolas Cruz who killed 17 people at a Parkland school in 2018.
Jurors could not unanimously agree he should be given the death penalty, despite the prosecution requesting he be executed and arguing the deadly attack was cold, calculated and meticulously planned.
Some victims’ relatives shook their heads in court when the jury rejected the prosecutors’ call.
Following the life sentences’ decision, Lori Alhadeff, whose daughter Alyssa was killed, said: “We are beyond disappointed with the outcome today.
“This should have been the death penalty, 100%. Seventeen people were brutally murdered on February 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 cannot understand. I just don’t understand.”
Cruz, 24, pleaded guilty last year to premeditated murder at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
The expelled student was 19 years old when he used a semi-automatic assault rifle to kill 14 students and three staff members in one of America’s worst school shootings.
Following three months of testimony and lawyers’ arguments, 12 jurors reached their recommendation after seven hours of deliberations over two days.
In Florida, a death sentence could only have been handed down if jurors had unanimously recommended Cruz be executed.
Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer will formally issue the sentence at a later date.
Cruz had said he chose Valentine’s Day to make it impossible for Stoneman Douglas students to celebrate the holiday ever again.
During the three-month sentencing trial the prosecution had argued Cruz’s crime was both premeditated as well as heinous and cruel – details among the criteria which Florida law establishes for deciding on a death sentence.
His defence team had acknowledged the severity of his crimes, but asked jurors to consider mitigating factors, including lifelong mental health disorders resulting from his biological mother’s substance abuse during pregnancy.
Cruz had apologised for his crimes and asked to be given a life sentence without the possibility of parole in order to dedicate his life to helping others.
Pic: AP
The sentencing proceedings included testimony from survivors of the shooting as well as mobile phone footage of students crying out for help or whispering as they hid during the attack.
Lead prosecutor Mike Satz focused on Cruz’s eight months of planning and the seven minutes during which he stalked the halls of the school, firing 140 shots from his AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle before escaping.
Cruz’s lead attorney, Melisa McNeill, and her team did not question the horror of his actions but focused on their belief his birth mother’s heavy drinking during pregnancy had left him with foetal alcohol spectrum disorder.
Their experts said his troubling and sometimes violent behaviour, which started at the age of two, was misdiagnosed as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, meaning he never got the right treatment.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas students days after the deadly attack
Mr Satz and his team contended Cruz did not suffer from foetal alcohol damage but had anti-social personality disorder.
Their witnesses said Cruz faked brain damage during testing and was capable of controlling his actions but chose not to.
Prosecutors also played several videos of Cruz discussing the crime with their mental health experts during which he talked about his planning and motivation.
The defence alleged during cross-examination that Cruz was sexually molested and raped by a 12-year-old neighbour when he was nine.
The massacre led to renewed calls for tighter gun control in the US, which have gained further support this year following the shooting of 19 children and two teachers at a school in Uvalde, Texas and another shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, that left 10 people dead.
Former US president Joe Biden has prostate cancer, his office has said.
The statement said Mr Biden, who left the White House in January, is reviewing options for treatment with his physicians.
It read: “Last week, President Joe Biden was seen for a new finding of a prostate nodule after experiencing increasing urinary symptoms.
“On Friday, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, characterised by a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5) with metastasis to the bone.
“While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management.
“The President and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians.”
File pic: Reuters
According to Cancer Research UK, a Gleason score of 9 means the cancerous cells “look very abnormal” and the disease is “likely to grow quickly”.
A source familiar with Mr Biden and his family’s thinking has told Sky’s US partner network, NBC News, that the former president is considering “multiple treatment options” – including hormone treatment for the cancer.
They added he is at his home in Wilmington, Delaware, and that as of now, it is unclear where the former president will be treated.
Mr Biden, 82, was the oldest person to ever serve as president, with concerns about his health raised regularly during his campaign for re-election last year.
After a poor debate against Donald Trump in June, he withdrew from the 2024 election and endorsed his vice president Kamala Harris.
In February 2023, he had a skin lesion removed from his chest that was a basal cell carcinoma, a common form of skin cancer.
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A Mexican navy ship has hit the Brooklyn Bridge during a promotional tour in New York City.
The New York Fire Department said authorities were responding to injuries but had no details about how many people might have been hurt or whether they were on the vessel or on the bridge.
Sky’s US partner network NBC News reports that at least three people were seriously injured in the incident.
The Mexican navy said in a post on X that the Cuauhtemoc, an academy training vessel, was damaged in the accident, which has prevented it from continuing its voyage.
Eyewitness video of the collision posted online showed the mast of the ship, which was flying a large Mexican flag, scraping the underneath of the bridge.
Pic: AP
The vessel then drifted toward the edge of the river as onlookers scrambled away from shore.
The Mexican navy said the status of personnel and material was under review by naval and local authorities, which were providing assistance.
The Cuauhtemoc is about 297ft long and 40ft wide, according to the Mexican navy. It sailed for the first time in 1982.
Pic: AP
Each year, it sets out at the end of classes at the naval military school to finish cadets’ training.
It left the Mexican port of Acapulco, on the Pacific coast, on 6 April with 277 people onboard, the navy said at the time.
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One person has died in a bomb explosion near a reproductive health clinic in California, authorities have said.
The incident took place in Palm Springs, a city two hours east of Los Angeles, and is being investigated as a possible car explosion.
The city’s mayor Ron DeHarte said one person died in the blast, adding that the bomb was “either in or near” a vehicle. The deceased’s identity is not known, Palm Springs police said.
Dr Maher Abdallah, who runs the American Reproductive Centers clinic, told the Associated Press his facility was damaged but all staff were safe and accounted for.
The explosion damaged the office space where the practice conducts patient consultations, but the IVF lab and stored embryos were unharmed, he added.
“I really have no clue what happened,” he said. “Thank God today happened to be a day that we have no patients.”
Debris covers the ground after the explosion. Pic: ABC7 Los Angeles/AP
In a statement posted on Facebook the clinic said it was “heartbroken” to learn someone died in the explosion and added: “Our deepest condolences go out to the individuals and families affected.”
It continued: “Our mission has always been to help build families, and in times like these, we are reminded of just how fragile and precious life is.
“In the face of this tragedy, we remain committed to creating hope – because we believe that healing begins with community, compassion, and care.
The clinic will be fully operational on Monday, it added.
“This moment has shaken us – but it has not stopped us. We will continue to serve with strength, love, and the hope that brings new life into the world,” the statement concluded.
Pic: ABC7 Los Angeles/AP
The Palm Springs city government said in a post on Facebook that the explosion happened on North Indian Canyon Drive, near East Tachevah Drive, before 11am local time (6pm GMT).
A burned-out car can be seen in a parking lot behind the building in aerial footage.
The blast caved in the clinic’s roof and blew debris across four lanes of the road.
Another person said he was inside a cannabis dispensary nearby when he felt a massive explosion.
Nima Tabrizi said: “The building just shook, and we go outside and there’s massive cloud smoke.”
Investigators from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are travelling to the scene to help assess what happened.
California governor Gavin Newsom has been briefed on the explosion, his press office said.
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