Triangle 9/11 survivors react to plea deal for attack mastermind: 'A painful chapter'

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- A plea deal is happening after more than two decades of waiting. The alleged terrorist mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, will plead guilty to get a life sentence and avoid the death penalty. It's a decision that's drawn mixed emotions among survivors and their families.

Survivors in the Triangle said they have tried to focus on moving forward with their lives, and while justice may not have been the way they would have envisioned, or as quick as they would have liked, it's a relief to at least help close a painful chapter.

John Cerqueira still remembers that day almost 23 years later.

"The feeling of having this building collapse seemingly on top of us, fleeing for our lives, being caught in a dust cloud, feeling that we were being suffocated to death and thinking that was the end," he said.

But it wasn't the end. Cerqueira, then just 22 years old and an NC State grad living in New York, was hailed a hero for rescuing a woman in a wheelchair down 68 flights of stairs at the World Trade Center.

As years passed, feelings of anger and vengeance slowly dimmed.

"I don't pine for it because I'd rather devote my energy to present day and healing and helping other people's other people heal," he said.

So now it's bittersweet learning of a plea deal

"There is now a sentence that can be can be imposed and puts that chapter behind us," he said. Still, he has a message for the perpetrators. "No sentence is severe enough for you. The pain you've caused and not just from people who are lost or people who knew people that were lost, but what it's done to our collective psyche and driving divisiveness and hate."

Others are more disappointed. Mike Dempsey said he had hoped for the death penalty but agreed at least this is some justice.

"I wish upon them all the harm and I do hope that they will think about the crimes that they perpetrated in solitary confinement. I would hope and think about what they did, and I hope they rot away in prison. I'm from Brooklyn and that's, you know, my way of beating them up," Dempsey said.

Dempsey not only survived 9/11 but years later also survived the deadly 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas. He said that in both cases, while there may never truly be closure, it's about finding peace and purpose within yourself.

"A lot of us, we go through things in life, we get knocked down, we get back up again. Everybody's got a 'Rocky' story in them. And I feel like I try to do that with my whole life, how I live," Dempsey said.

Dempsey also said that an important moment for closure for him was getting a chance to meet and thank one of the members of Seal Team 6 that conducted the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden.