The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Frozen in Horror: Notes from Inside the Site of the Parkland School Massacre

2022-08-05T17:19:13.100Z


On Thursday, jurors from the Parkland shooter walked through the crime scene, where the victims' blood still stains classroom floors.


Jury visited the scene of the Parkland school shooting 2:45

Editor's note:

This article contains explicit descriptions of gun violence that could upset readers.



(CNN) --

Building 1200 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School has remained sealed since the February 14, 2018 massacre.


On Thursday, jurors in the sentencing phase of the school shooter's trial walked through the undisturbed crime scene, where the victims' blood still stains classroom floors.

Bullet holes also mark the walls of the Parkland, Florida, school where Nikolas Cruz killed 14 students and three staff members.

  • What does Nikolas Cruz now face after pleading guilty to the Parkland massacre?

A lock of dark hair remains on a floor more than four years after a victim's body was carried away.

Gifts and Valentine's cards are strewn about, while shards of glass crunch under the feet of visitors.

These are the disturbing notes of a group of reporters who were allowed into the building after jurors finished their tour to provide details to media outlets across the country, including CNN.

First floor

We entered the east stairway as did Cruz.

In the stairwell where Cruz entered and assembled his gun, a white teddy bear lay dirty on the floor next to a bag of Valentine hearts, likely dropped by a fleeing student.

advertising

Throughout the building there are shards of broken safety glass that crack loudly as you walk over them.

They are especially loud and creaky at the threshold of each door.

Classroom 1218

Brittany Sinitch's English class: There were no deaths or injuries here, but this is where Cruz fired her first shots.

The textbooks on the desks were open to a section on Mercutio.

A valentine teddy bear was on a desk.

A Stoneman Douglas football poster from 2017 was on the wall, a team photo with the tagline: Faith Family Football.

A pink note wishing a Happy Valentine's Day was on a desk next to a worksheet from student Sarah Louis.

A clear plastic cup sat half full on a desk, its contents now a dark brown sludge.

On a desk you can read a Valentine's card that said "I don't just like you, I like you very, very much".

Classroom 1215

Study room run by Spanish teacher Juletta Matlock - There is dried blood outside the door where Luke Hoyer, Martin Duque and Gina Montalto were killed.

Just inside the door, a pair of headphones with a long cord lay on the floor.

The book "To Kill a Mockingbird" remains on a desk.

On one wall is a poster titled "Let's Guac About It" with basic Spanish words: Padre, Madre, Abuelo, Abuela." On another wall is a poster with common Spanish phrases and colors.

Classroom 1213 - Ronit Reoven's AP Psychology Class

On the wall farthest from the door is a table with a large pool of blood on it.

This is where Carmen Schentrup died of a gunshot wound to the head.

She and her students hid behind the teacher's desk, which is in the southeast corner of the classroom.

Across from the desk where Maddy Wilford lay injured, the teacher's desk phone was on the floor.

On the walls behind the desk are photos of what appears to be the teacher's family and an 8 X 10 drawing of President Trump with the phrase "We will win at anything we do."

On the north wall is a bulletin board with some two dozen portfolio-size photos of students.

A lone white tennis shoe remains on the ground.

Hallway - Hixon Site

Hixon, after being shot running out the west door, hid in a gap in front of the elevator about 20 feet from the door.

Cruz shot him a second time as he passed by, but he remained alive and spent about 10 minutes trying to get up, according to video played in court.

There is a large blood stain on the floor and on the wall.

A black rubber shoe, possibly a Croc, lay there on the floor.

Classroom 1214 - "The Holocaust Room" - Professor Ivy Schamis's Classroom

She taught Holocaust Studies.

This is where Nick Dworet and Helena Ramsay died.

The hashtag #TogetherWeRemember is written on the board.

There are also references to eyewitness accounts.

On a table are two yellowed Sun Sentinel newspapers, bullet marks on desks, laptops still open, headphones and a bottle of water still on a desk.

On the floor there is an agenda for the 2017-2018 school year lying around.

There are blood marks where Dworet and Ramsay died.

His blood covers a book called "Tell Them We Remember" by Susan Bachrach and "Listen to the Wind" by Greg Mortenson. There is a Holocaust poster on a bulletin board with the words "we will never forget."

One desk had a white plug and headphones on it, indicating how quickly it all unfolded.

The learning objective written on the blackboard: "Be aware of the world and your environment".

Classroom 1216

In no classroom were there as many killed and injured as in Dara Hass's English class.

A blue folder with Alaina Petty's name still on the desk, right behind that between the teacher's desk and the wall is a large blood stain.

There are bullet holes in the walls.

Right next to the bloodstain on the floor where Alyssa Alhadeff and Alaina Petty died is a handwritten paper about Malala Yousafzai, "the girl who wanted to go to school", the paper goes on to say "a bullet went straight into her head but not his brain" ending with "In conclusion, we the people should have freedom for education".

(Note: Malala is the Pakistani girl who was shot by the Taliban; she has fought to defend girls' and women's access to education.)

The essays written by the students remain in their desks, never to be recovered.

"We go to school every day of the week and take everything for granted," one student wrote.

"We cry and complain without knowing how lucky we are to be able to learn."

On the cabinet doors, an earlier task is exposed.

It shows tombstones with epitaphs written by the students.

"RIP Here lies the beauty."


"RIP Here lies fun."


"RIP Here lies the good."

Next to a shoe on the floor is a pink Valentine's teddy bear and balloons.

The pool of blood looks aged, dark, caked, scaly.

Desks are covered in a fine layer of dust, a landline phone lies upside down on the floor.

On Alex Schachter's desk, a blood stain is visible on the other side of the silver bar that joins the plastic seat to the desk.

  • Isabella Benjumea: What happened in Parkland "is never forgotten"

West Staircase

Near the west stairwell, where Hixon was shot, a shoe is seen that was left behind.

Second Floor: Hall Appointments

Appointment in the hallway between rooms 1221 and 1229

"Dream as if you will live forever, live as if you will die today."

-James Dean

Further down the hall it reads:


"Never live in the past, but always learn from it."

- Anonymous

Room 1230

A large heart-shaped box of Valentine's Day chocolates is seen on a desk.


In another, an open case of pens and pencils.

Classroom 1232

Calculators are still on desks, spiral notebooks are still open for math, students were working on algebra problems.

Classroom 1231

Desks grouped together


"Class of 2018" photos of students in casual settings (not formal photos).

  • Parkland massacre: this was the shooting at a school that left 17 people dead in 2018

Third floor

Room 1256, Scott Beigel's classroom:

Entering the hallway from the stairs on the east side, the first thing you see is a puddle of caked blood much smaller than others.

This is where Scott Beigel's body fell in front of room 1256. Unlike other rooms, his door window is intact.

Beigel died holding the door open.

His body prevented the door from closing.

The children hiding in front of his classroom were vulnerable, but Cruz didn't decide to go inside.

World maps the size of plastic placemats can be seen on most desks.

There were three wall clocks lying upside down by the door.

On Beigel's desk were worksheets comparing Christianity and Islam.

Notes about the 2018 Winter Olympics medalists are visible on the blackboard. A deflated Valentine's Day balloon lay on the floor.

Room 1255, Stacey Lippel's classroom

The door is wide open, like others to signify that Cruz shot through it, and a "No Bully Zone" hangs inside.

The creative writing task for the day is written on the board: "How to write the perfect love letter."

The teacher's desk is on the left and one can imagine the students hiding behind it.

The desks are in disarray, some pushed over one another in what was described in testimony as a mad rush to get back in.

Atop a desk is an enviable Valentine's Day display: a large gift bag with paper inside, a box of round silver-wrapped candies, and a heart-shaped box.

As you walk down the aisle, dried and cracked rose petals mixed with glass shards give the scene a cinematic feel.

There is a large pool of blood in the center of the third floor hallway where Anthony Borges was injured.

A sign above the water fountains has a quote from Yoda from Star Wars: "Do it or don't. There's no trying."

Beneath the water fountains, three large pools of dried blood mark the spots where authorities dragged the bodies of Cara Loughran, Meadow Pollack and Joaquin Oliver.

A faint trail of blood traces the path of the bodies from the classroom where their bodies fell after being shot.

A pool of blood is seen in the corner of the exterior of 1249 where Pollack and Loughran died.

They stood there, injured, after the rest of the group huddled in the alcove with Ernie Rospierski fled down the hall.

Then


Cruz came back and shot them again.

Room 1249, Ernie Rospierski

There is an unfinished chess game.

A friend of Peter Yang stated that they were playing a game when the fire alarm went off.

  • The warning signs that everyone ignored about Nikolas Cruz

room 1250

Valentine balloons, flower petals, white teddy bear.

One of the most disturbing sights is the space outside the bathroom where Joaquín Oliver died.

There is a large pool of blood and holes from the bullets shot at him at close range.

There are drops of blood that reach the corner from the first shots in which he was wounded.

But most of the blood is from when Cruz caught up with Oliver and fired.

We know from the evidence that Oliver was conscious after he was hit.

He couldn't run when the others fled.

He heard Cruz approach.

He heard the shots at Pollack and Loughran.

He knew he was next.

We know from testimony that he raised his hands to protect himself.

Two bullets in the wall show how futile that attempt was.

There is a strand of dark hair on the ground near where her body would have been.

The corner of a Valentine's Day heart-shaped paper ornament (perhaps it was a card) is crumpled, presumably blood-soaked.

As he proceeds down the hallway toward the west wall, bullets graze the south walls, an indication that Cruz was aiming at the fleeing students and not shooting randomly in front of him.

We see the corner in front of the stairwell where Peter Wang fell after being shot while running down the hall.

The wall is drawn in squares that look like search quadrants.

It is filled with dark blood stains and yellow-green material that was described in testimony as brain matter.

The pin-sized holes in the wall have circles drawn around them and are marked "fragment D" and "fragment F".

There are six bullet holes in the window above where Wang died. Cruz tried to blow out the windows to shoot at the fleeing students.

Jaime Guttenberg was hit outside the stairwell but fell inside.

There is very little blood where he fell.

The bullet never left his body.

In the staff room, a window facing the 1300 building has 4 bullet holes.

Another window next to it has another bullet hole.

These windows face the courtyard and parking lot where the students were fleeing.

  • Parents fight on behalf of their son killed in Parkland shooting

A sign next to a window reads thus:

"Typical or Distressed?


Look: See if you see signs of concern in a student.


Talk: Talk to the student.


Act: Share observations with school mental health staff


Change the course of a life.


School Social Work 754- 321-1618


Family Counseling 754-321-1590


Broward Public Schools."

parkland massacre

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2022-08-05

You may like

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-27T16:45:54.081Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.