ORLANDO, Fla. — Just before a sentence was handed down Tuesday to Jaylen Edgar, the teen gunman responsible for killing two people and injuring seven others in a mass shooting on Halloween night 2024 in downtown Orlando, Circuit Judge Keith Carsten addressed him bluntly.

“Nearly two years ago today, you terrorized this city,” Carsten said.

Edgar, who was 17 at the time of the shooting, was ordered to serve two consecutive life sentences for the murders of Tyrek Hill, 25, and University of Central Florida student Timothy Schmidt Jr., 19, in addition to a separate, concurrent life sentence for the attempted murders. The sentencing came after emotional testimony from Hill’s mother, Smith’s father, and a surviving victim, as well as Edgar’s own first words in court.

Even if he qualifies for the earliest possible parole, Edgar, now 19, likely will not be released from prison until he is 92.

He was convicted of his charges in August following an emotional trial that saw surviving victims testify to the horror experienced that night, as loved ones of the two men killed, watched from the courtroom gallery along with Edgar’s family and friends.

That Halloween night, as tens of thousands of costumed partygoers descended upon downtown Orlando, Edgar met with friends and walked around the area. Shortly after officers ordered him off a firehouse stretcher he had climbed onto, Edgar walked past Hill before turning around and firing a single shot to his head from point-blank range.

Edgar then ran into a nearby alleyway, emerging on Orange Avenue near Washington Street, just steps from the Wall Street Orlando complex. After a brief confrontation with someone as he pushed through the crowd, he fired a second shot, striking Schmidt in the chest, followed by several more shots as he tried to flee the scene before quickly being captured by Orlando police officers.

No motive has ever been disclosed, but on Tuesday, Edgar spoke to the court for the first time since the trial. That night, he said, he was with friends drinking and doing drugs before heading to downtown. He said he carried with him what he and a court-appointed psychologist said were years of instability and trauma, including a high-profile, suspected gang-related drive-by shooting that killed his 3-year-old nephew in 2020.

He apologized to the victims in the courtroom, who could be heard sniffling and sobbing softly, saying he blacked out that night prior to the shooting and only came to once he was in the back of a squad car.

“I know how it feels to lose someone innocent that didn’t deserve what was done to them,” Edgar said. “For six years, I’ve been asking myself the same question that everybody been asking here, and that’s the question, ‘Why?’ And I wish I could answer that question, but I can’t.”

Assistant State Attorney Frank George, who at trial argued there was no ready explanation other than Edgar wanted to kill people that night, confronted him after he finished his statement: “Sir, you put a gun to a man’s head less than five inches away and shot him. What are they supposed to think, that it was an accident?”

Edgar sat downcast and silent.

One by one, Hill’s mother, Schmidt’s family, and one of the victims took the stand to speak before the court. Schmidt was remembered as a loving son, grandson and nephew and a teen known for planning his entire day around helping someone in need.

“My son is not a case number, he’s not a statistic — he’s junior and I’m senior,” said Timothy Schmidt Sr., his father. “That will never change, not for you, not for this court, not for anyone. He was loved beyond measure. He gave more to this world in 19 years than most people give in a lifetime, and his absence will be felt by tens of thousands for the rest of our lives.”

Jessica de Carvalho, who survived being shot in the hand by Edgar as he fired aimlessly into the crowd, said she has become a stronger woman as a result of the shooting: “I am a victor because I chose not to let this turn me into an angry person.”

But it was Teresa Clinton, Hill’s mother, who spoke directly to Edgar.

“I often ask myself, at such a young age, 17, what were you doing down there, and with a gun? What were you thinking, son?” she said. “You have changed our lives here. Forever.”

She told him about her son, a gentle giant who just wanted to go out that night after a hard week’s work driving a tow truck. She recounted a night when she survived being fatally shot herself after a gun pointed at her jammed. Ultimately, she wished Edgar well and said she hopes he gets the help he needs in prison.

“You did a grown-man act,” Clinton concluded, “and now you have to do the grown-man walk.”

Following the sentencing, Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell issued a statement sending her support to the victims and their families. “They deserved to celebrate, spend time with their loved ones and return home safely,” Worrell wrote. “Instead, their lives were forever changed by senseless violence.”

She continued, “We must also recognize that this tragedy has had a profound impact on the defendant’s own family. They, too, must live with the consequences of the decisions he made. This is a painful reminder that violence reaches far beyond its immediate victims, leaving lasting scars on families and entire communities.”

________

©2026 Orlando Sentinel. Visit at orlandosentinel.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.