The Parkland shooting was a mass shooting that happened on February 14, 2018. Student Nikolaus Cruz, who was 19 years old, fired at students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School located in Parkland, Florida. Nikolaus killed 17 people and injured 14 others.
Talking to Diana Sanchez (classmate), she shared her opinion, “It’s really really sad students have to go through this, and I think it’s very unfair that he’s still breathing and living while other humans are not.”
Background
Nikolaus Cruz was born on September 24, 1998. When he was born he was orphaned for an unknown reason. Cruz was then adopted by Roger and Lynda Cruz. His adoptive parents died: Roger at age 67 due to a heart attack on August 11, 2004, and Lynda at age 68 due to pneumonia on November 1, 2017, that left Cruz orphaned three months before the shooting. From the time of his mother’s death, he stayed with relatives and friends from the time of the shooting.
He was a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School where he was a member of the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps and member of his school’s varsity air rifle team. Already having access to guns and rifles. Cruz was already known to have behavioral problems since birth. At school students would describe him as having a “very disturbing” social media history. He would post pictures of dead animals and holding knives and guns. He shared his obsession about how he would joke around of mass shootings and was open about his opinions and views through a private instagram group chat. (Members refused to confirm their identities on or off the record, according to edition.cnn.com by Paul B Murphy)
Shooting and Arrest
“Hi, I’m Nick, I’m a school shooter,” he said to an acquaintance interviewed by CNN. It was February 14, 2018 when Nikolas Cruz opened fire on students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School located in Parkland, Florida.
Cruz took an Uber to school. ““I saw him with a backpack which I thought was a guitar case,” the driver, who asked to not be identified,” said, but the “guitar case” was his rifle case carrying a semi-automatic rifle. At 2:19 p.m, 20 minutes before dismissal, Nikolas Cruz walked into building 12, a three story building. No code red lockdown was declared. At 2:21 p.m the building contained 900 students and 30 teachers with 30 classrooms in total. Before Cruz started shooting he came in contact with Chris McKenna, a 14 year old boy who ran into the shooter who was loading up his AR-15. “When I saw him he told me, ‘you better get out of here. Things are going to get messy,’” McKenna said. “I was shocked, and I had a gut feeling of what he was about to do. My first instinct was to run.” (eagleeye.news by Zoe Gordon).
Walking in at 2:21 p.m in the first floor, Nikolas shoots into four classrooms killing 11 people. 2:23 p.m, he then goes up to the second floor. Cruz shoots into two classrooms. The second floor was already warned about the situation and stayed quiet. Cruz thought it was empty. At 2:24 p.m he goes to the third floor. He continues to shoot people in the hallway and the stairwell, killing six. At 2:25 p.m he tried to set up a sniper position, but failed due to hurricane resistant windows. Finally at 2:27 p.m he drops the rifle and backpack to run down the stairs out the building.
While Cruz was going upstairs to the third floor, students walked out of their classrooms when they heard gunshots, said nytimes.com. While attempting to protect his students by locking his classroom door, Scott Beigel, a geography teacher, was shot and killed. Cruz killed 17 people, 3 teachers and 14 students, in the amount of 6 minutes and 9 seconds.
Once it ended, students ran out towards heavily armed police officers.
The Capture
After the shooting, Cruz left campus and ran to a nearby sandwich shop to get a drink and change his clothes. Eight minutes later he went to a nearby McDonald’s, where he ran into John Wilford. Wilford didn’t know what was going on at the time, all he had heard was helicopters and sirens. John tried to call his older sister Maddy, but John wouldn’t have known he was near the guy who seriously wounded his sister at the high school. He had tried to make small talk with Cruz. Aaccording to ap.news.com, “I told him, ‘This is so chaotic, it’s crazy with all these helicopters and squad cars. What do you think this could be?’” Wilford recalled. “He didn’t say much. He had his head down.” John met up with his mother in the parking lot to pick him up. Cruz asked for a ride but John had said no.
Half an hour later at 3:41 p.m Cruz was captured three miles away from the school walking down the sidewalk.
In 2019, Cruz was pleaded guilty in October to 17 counts of first-degree murder. However, while three jurors voted on the death penalty, another juror had believed that Cruz should not be sentenced to death because of his mental illness. Finally, on November 2, 2022, Cruz was sentenced to life without parole.
Victims:
Alyssa Alhadeff, 14 years old.
Alex Schachter, 14 years old.
Martin Duque, 14 years old.
Jaime Guttenberg, 14 years old.
Cara Loughran, 14 years old.
Gina Montalto, 14 years old.
Alaina Petty, 14 years old.
Peter Wang, 15 years old.
Luke Hoyer, 15 years old.
Carmen Schentrup, 16 years old.
Helena Ramsay, 17 years old.
Nick Dworet, 17 years old.
Joaquin Oliver, 17 years old.
Meadow Pollack, 18 years old.
Teacher Scott Beigel, 35 years old.
Coach and security guard Aaron Feis, 37 years old.
Athletic Director and Navy Veteran, Christopher Hixon, 49 years old.
