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Nikolas Cruz in court: "I'm sorry for what I did"
Photo: AMY BETH BENNETT / POOL / EPA
More than three and a half years after the Parkland school massacre, 23-year-old Nikolas Cruz has pleaded guilty to 17 murders and 17 attempted murders in a US court.
Because of the confession of guilt, there will be no process to resolve the question of guilt.
The court will still have to decide on the punishment.
Cruz faces life imprisonment with no early release or even the death penalty.
The court plans to start jury selection in November.
Testimony could begin in January.
In court, Cruz apologized.
"I'm sorry for what I did," he said. "Sometimes I can't live with myself." He wishes the survivors could decide whether to die.
Valentine's Day massacre
The then 19-year-old opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle on students and teachers at his former school, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in the US state of Florida, on Valentine's Day 2018.
He killed 17 people and injured 17 others.
The Parkland attack was one of the worst school massacres in US history.
Survivors of the attack founded the nationwide school movement “March for Our Lives” for stricter regulations on gun ownership.
Hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated in Washington a month after the massacre.
However, the gun law was largely not tightened.
ptz / AFP / AP