Nikolas Cruz pleaded guilty on Wednesday to murdering 17 people during a 2018 shooting spree at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Cruz, now 23, also pleaded guilty to 17 counts of attempted murder. A jury will decide if Cruz should be imprisoned for the rest of his life without the possibility of parole or receive the death penalty. Jury selection is scheduled to begin on Jan. 4.

Cruz appeared in court Wednesday and told Judge Elizabeth Scherer that he suffered from depression and anxiety. In rambling remarks, he said “I am very sorry for what I did, and I have to live with it every day. If I were to get a second chance, I would do everything in my power to try to help others.”

The Associated Press reports:

Parents scoffed at Cruz’s statement as they left the courtroom, saying it seemed self-serving and aimed at eliciting unearned sympathy. Gena Hoyer, whose 15-year-old son Luke died in the shooting, saw it as part of a defense strategy “to keep a violent, evil person off death row.”

She said her son was “a sweet young man who had a life ahead of him and the person you saw in there today chose to take his life. He does not deserve life in prison.”

CNN provides more details from the courtroom:

The prosecution laid out the harrowing timeline of the shooting, which began when Cruz, then 19, grabbed his AR-15-style rifle and magazines and rode in an Uber to his former high school. There, he took out his rifle and loaded it, and when a student walked near, Cruz offered a warning. “You better get out of here,” he told the student. “Something bad is about to happen.”

Cruz then wandered through the halls of the school and fired indiscriminately at various students and staff in hallways and classrooms, prosecutors said. He eventually left the school and was taken into custody several miles away.

CBS News adds:

Ahead of Wednesday’s hearing, Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter Jaime was killed in the shooting, told CBS News correspondent Mireya Villarreal the past three years have been “torture.”

“I dreamt every day of walking my daughter down the aisle, and because of what this murderer did I now live every day knowing I won’t get to do that,” Guttenberg said. He wants the defendant sentenced to death.

Earlier on Wednesday, the families of Cruz’s victims reached a $25 million settlement with the school district which oversees Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.