The Devastation of the 2018 Parkland Shooting

On February 14th 2018, tragedy took place at Marjory Stoneman High School located in a small suburban city of Parkland outside of Miami, Florida. Students were going about their day normally until gunshot sounds were heard all throughout the school. Nikolas Cruz, age 19, proceeded to go on a deadly rampage killing 17 as well as injuring 17 others. This shooting has gone down as one of the most fatal high school shootings in United States history.

Nikolas Cruz was a former student who attended Stoneman High School who was expelled for disciplinary actions. He had a history of making threats against teachers and students at his previous schools. He then proceeded to gain treatment and underwent mental evaluations, where they concluded that he suffered from depression, ADHD, and autism. They had made the overall conclusion that he was at “low risk of harming himself and others”. However, within the year of the shooting he had not received any treatments. His social media accounts were described as ‘disturbing’ and hard to indulge as he would often post racial propaganda and openly promote gun violence. Furthermore, there were youtube comments in which he stated that he intended to mimic the ‘University of Texas tower shooting’. Former classmates have stated that he had ‘anger management issues’, and tended to frequently make comments about gun violence and harming others. There were many signs that showed Cruz was a troubled teen and was in need of direct mental help, however, the police often shrugged it off ignoring all of the constant foreshadowing of potential violence.

On the morning of the shooting, Nikolas Cruz was seen walking into the school with a ‘purpose’, however, even after being identified, no teacher reported any suspicious behavior or called a code red. He then entered Building 12, which was a three-story structure that was filled with little furniture in each classroom, meaning that there were less places to hide. The fire alarm was set off, but the staff and students were confused, because earlier that day they had a fire drill. Cruz walked into a random hallway and began shooting indiscriminately at students and teachers, killing three students and later six more as he fired into the classroom windows, severely wounding 13 others in the process. At this time, a code red still was not called, and the school was not in a lockdown, as there was still confusion between the staff; however, it was finally called once a body was found and gunfire was confirmed. Two more staff members were killed by the stairwell, and five students and a staff member were also killed outside of the classrooms. He was continuously shooting for six minutes before he dropped his rifle and attempted to blend in with the fleeing students. He ran to a nearby fast-food restaurant, however, when he tried to leave, police apprehended him as a suspected shooter.

In 2018, Cruz was indicted on 34 charges: 17 counts of first-degree murder and 17 counts of attempted first-degree murder. He immediately confessed to the shooting. and even told the police of his other hidden weapons. Shortly after, the prosecution filed that they intended to seek the death penalty for Cruz, as they could prove five of the aggravating factors that qualify a murder for the death penalty in Florida. He attempted to get the judge to believe that he had a developmental disability which made him “fearful of other people, and was threatened by bullies”. However, the Judge dismissed the letter given and decided to proceed with the trial. He was appointed a public defender, as he could not afford a private attorney. In 2021, Cruz pleaded guilty to all charges after previously pleading not guilty. Although, prior to this hearing, he planned to plead guilty as a way to avoid the death penalty. To further support his display of remorse, he made a statement in which he expressed his regret to the victims’ families, and attempted to seem empathetic by asking them to decide his fate. After this, he was sentenced to 26 years in prison for assault and battery against a prison guard. More recently, Cruz’s death penalty trial began in 2022 where there were mutiple pieces of evidence reprimanding him. The jury was conflicted on whether the aggravating elements exceeded the mitigating ones while finding that the state had shown the aggravating factors on all counts beyond a reasonable doubt. The families of the victims expressed their outrage and dismay over the decision to not carry out the death penalty. Due to Florida state law, the jury must vote unanimously in favor of the death penalty, as opposed to the typical majority vote. Cruz was ultimately given 34 consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole on November 2nd, 2022, where each of the 34 counts represents a victim.

The names of all the victims who were brutally killed are:

• Alyssa Alhadeff, 14

• Scott Beigel, 35

• Martin Duque, 14

• Nicholas Dworet, 17

• Aaron Feis, 37

• Jaime Guttenberg, 14

• Chris Hixon, 49

• Luke Hoyer, 15

• Cara Loughran, 14

• Gina Montalto, 14

• Joaquin Oliver, 17

• Alaina Petty, 14

• Meadow Pollack, 18

• Helena Ramsay, 17

• Alex Schachter, 14

• Carmen Schentrup, 16

• Peter Wang, 15