Nikolas Cruz, perpetrator of a 2018 Florida high school massacre, apologized Wednesday to the families of his victims gathered in a court near Miami, after pleading guilty to his 17 murders committed with an assault rifle .
"
I'm so sorry for what I did, I carry the weight of it every day,
" said the 23-year-old, who was 19 on the day of what was one of the worst massacres in France. school environment in the United States.
Nikolas Cruz had opened fire on Valentine's Day with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, from which he had been expelled the previous year for "
disciplinary reasons
".
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The juvenile-looking defendant, hunched over body and bowed head, pleaded guilty to the 17 murders in an uncertain voice, in a crowded courtroom.
He will now have to be presented to a jury for his sentence to be fixed.
Prosecutors said they would seek the death penalty.
The shooting was the worst school massacre in the United States since the Sandy Hook school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, in which 26 people were killed.
The Parkland drama had aroused immense emotion, and a historic mobilization was led by several young survivors of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and by the parents of the victims.
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It culminated on March 24, 2018 when the "
March for Our Lives
" had brought together 1.5 million people across the country, the largest national demonstration for better regulation of firearms in the history of the United States. , suggesting to some the possibility of legislative development.
This was not the case, and firearms sales have on the contrary increased in recent years in the United States, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic.