SPOKANE, Wash. — The sentencing hearing for Caleb Sharpe is in its final days.
Sharpe opened fire at Freeman High School in 2017, killing one student and injuring three freshman girls. Sharpe pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and other charges related to the shooting in January.
Thursday marks day five of his sentencing hearing. On this day, in their own words, Emma Nees and Gracie Jensen described what happened the day Sharpe shot them on the second-floor hallway of their school nearly five years ago. Their parents shared the heartbreak they've felt since that day, asking the judge to give the shooter the maximum sentence.
"The next thing I remember is laying in the hole, stuck, unable to get up and move," Gracie Jensen told the shooter in her court testimony. "As I lay there, I watched you walk by me. Lockdown alarm blaring, wearing all black with the most emotionless face I've ever seen. Shooting at my classmates as they run their lives into classrooms. I screamed. There was nothing else I could do."
"The fact that Gracie survived is remarkable," Eric Jensen, Gracie's father, said. "The fact that she can walk is a miracle."
"I started running and was so scared because I felt like I was running in slow motion," Emma Nees said in her testimony. "I felt a sort of pressure near my hip area. I didn't even think twice about it because my mission was to get to the nearest classroom as fast as possible. As I was running, I began thinking there's absolutely no way I'm getting out of this. But, the scariest part for me was yet to come."
"You took so much from her, Caleb," Staci Nees, Emma's mother, told the shooter. "You took her innocence. You extinguished her jovial personality, her ability to enjoy life without fear."
In addition to the two victims and their parents, Ami Strahan also shared her story. She is the mother of Sam Strahan, the Freeman student who was killed in the shooting.
In the meantime, the court will hear attorneys make their closing statements tomorrow and then the judge will decide the shooter's sentence.
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