Before the gunman formally received his sentence for the Valentine’s Day massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in suburban Fort Lauderdale, family members of the victims and survivors of the shooting had time to speak to him. “It was extremely painful to hear all the gruesome details of this massacre at our children’s high school,” said Annika Dworet, who with her husband, Mitch, attended every day of the gunman’s trial. “Just being in the same room with this monster that killed our son Nicholas and tried to murder our son Alex. It’s unbearable.” He continued, “One of the most disgusting and unprofessional actions that happened in this courtroom was the defense team holding, touching and laughing with this cold-blooded killer.” The gunman, shackled and wearing a red prison jumpsuit, stared at the speakers but showed little emotion, as he had the day before. He took off a face mask after Jennifer Guttenberg, Jaime Guttenberg’s mother, told him he shouldn’t wear one. “It’s disrespectful to hide your expressions under your mask when we as families are sitting here talking to you, lowered into your seat, hunched over, trying to look innocent when you’re not,” Guttenberg said. ‘You’re a monster’: Loved ones of Parkland shooting victims address gunman ahead of sentencing 03:33 As of Tuesday, family members of the victims and some of the 17 wounded survivors of the shooting did not miss the opportunity to verbally attack the gunman face-to-face after nearly five years. “The idea that you, a cold-blooded killer, can actually live every day, eat your meals and put your head down at night seems completely unfair,” teacher Stacey Lippel, who was wounded in the shooting, told the gunman. “The only consolation I have is that your life in prison will be full of horror and fear, so my hope for you is that you die, sooner rather than later.” Those who spoke went to a lectern about 20 feet from the 24-year-old gunman, looked him in the eye and poured out their anger and grief. Many also criticized a Florida law that requires unanimity of jurors to impose the death penalty — jurors voted 9-3 on Oct. 13 to carry out. “He got away with this punishment because a minority of jurors were given the power to overturn a majority decision made by people who were able to see him for what he is — an unrepentant monster who deserves no mercy,” Meghan Petty said. . Her younger sister, 14-year-old Alaina, died when the gunman fired his AR-15 semi-automatic rifle into her classroom as she stalked the halls of a three-story building for seven minutes, firing 140 shots. He had been planning the shoot for seven months. “A person has to be incredibly sick to want to harm another person. Even more sick to stay in the desire and make a plan and unimaginably evil to carry out that plan, which not only hurt people but ended lives “, he said. “To add insult to injury, he was arrogant enough to plan a disguise, thinking he could get away with his actions while my sister lay dead on a dirty classroom floor.” The gunman, a former Stoneman Douglas student and then 19, wore a school shirt so he could blend in with fleeing students as he escaped. He was arrested an hour later. Patricia Oliver, who lost her son Joaquin, hit back Tuesday at defense attorneys who argued their client should have been spared because his mother abused drugs and alcohol while she was pregnant and never got the help he needed. “Karma,” he said, “will eventually catch up with you all.” Patricia Padauy Oliver speaks during the sentencing hearing of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, November 1, 2022. Amy Beth Bennett/Pool via Reuters