The man who shot up the offices of the Family Research Council on August 15, 2012, saying he wanted to kill “conservative right-wing Christians,” was sentenced to 25 years in prison today.
Corkins entered the lobby armed with a loaded semi-automatic pistol, 100 rounds of ammunition, and 15 Chick-fil-A sandwiches. He started firing at FRC’s building manager Leo Johnson who heroically tackled the shooter after a gunshot shattered his arm.
From a report on the sentencing:
The man who planned a mass shooting in the headquarters of the Family Research Council, a conservative lobbying group, was sentenced to 25 years in prison Thursday.
Prosecutors asked that Floyd Corkins spend 45 years in prison. But Corkins’ lawyer said his client was mentally ill when he entered the Family Research Council building in D.C. and shot and injured a security guard. He says an 11 ½ year sentence is appropriate.“I forgive you but I do not forget,” said Leo Johnson, the guard shot in the incident. “If you believe in God you should pray to him everyday because not only did God save my life that day, he saved yours too.”
Johnson said he was armed with a gun that day but God told him not to shoot.
Corkins pled guilty to three charges, including committing an act of domestic terrorism while armed – the first such charge in Washington, D.C and government is seeking a 45-year prison term for the liberal activist. Corkins has pleaded guilty and his public defender was hoping to get him a reduced sentence of 11 years. The attorney also provided some rationale for while Corkins targeted the pro-life group.
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Corkins was “experiencing auditory hallucinations” and had “thoughts of killing his parents and conservative right-wing Christians” in the months leading up to his crime, his lawyer argued.
In a chilling Federal Bureau of Investigation interrogation video released in April, Corkins said that he picked his target from the Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) website.
