12:21 p.m. ET, November 1, 2022
Victim's mother recounts "listening to the screams and the howling" of families after shooting
Anne Marie Ramsay, whose daughter, Helena Ramsay, was killed during the Parkland shooting, called Cruz "pure evil" and said she wished he would have been sentenced to death.
She said that her daughter was a "lovely girl" who was an "angel to me."
On the day she was killed, Ramsay said Helena told her "bye mommy, love you, and she skipped off." Later that day, Helena sent Ramsay the last text she received from her daughter, a "smiley face with the heart" emoji. Ramsay said the day of the shooting, Valentine's Day 2018, she had sent a "huge, soft fondant cookie with hearts" with her daughter in her bag and that the text was "her love thrown back to me."
After the shooting, Ramsay said their family was told her daughter was injured and they spent "fruitless" hours searching area hospitals. They were eventually sent to a Marriott hotel with other families to wait to learn more information about their loved ones.
She recounted waiting at the Marriott for hours "listening to the screams and the howling of all the other families." Meanwhile, Ramsay said, they found out that the shooter was in the hospital, being taken care of and "continuing" his "ploy."
"Instead of taking care of us, they were taking care of you," Ramsay said to Cruz, adding she'll "never forget that night."
"You kept us there," Ramsay said, addressing Cruz. She said her family was at the hotel until about 3 a.m. and they were the "last family to be looked at."
"You took away an angel that could have made a difference in society," Ramsay told Cruz.