Parkland school killer formally sentenced to life in prison

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School killer Nikolas Cruz seated at the defence table for a sentencing hearing at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Wednesday, November 2, 2022 (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel via AP/PA)

Parkland school gunman Nikolas Cruz formally has received a sentence of life without parole after families of his victims spent two days berating him as evil, a coward, a monster and a subhuman.

Cruz, shackled and in a red jail jumpsuit, watched circuit judge Elizabeth Scherer as she pronounced 34 consecutive life sentences — one each for the dead and the 17 he wounded — for the February 14, 2018, massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.