Junior ROTC leader never suspected ex-cadet

PARKLAND, Fla. — The sound of gunfire still ringing in his ears after his mad half-mile sprint, Jack Ciaramello was standing with friends in a parking lot when a sheriff ’s deputy approached. He asked the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High senior if he knew a former student named Nikolas Cruz.

Of course he did: Cruz had been one of Ciaramello’s cadets in the school’s Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps.

Ciaramello’s head reeled. He’d escaped, but his 14-year-old brother — also a cadet — was still in the school. Why was the deputy asking about Cruz?

“And then it clicked,” the 17-yearold senior said.

Officials have accused Cruz in the shooting rampage that left 17 students and staff dead. In the days since, reports of Cruz’s violent, threatening behavior have flooded traditional and social media. Some students said they weren’t surprised, but Ciaramello never suspected Cruz was capable of this kind of savagery.

As Cruz’s leader in Company E — “Echo Company” — Ciaramello tried to instill discipline, pride and a sense of camaraderie in Cruz.

Ciaramello found Cruz a bit odd but didn’t consider his cadet dangerous.

“He liked hunting. He liked fishing. And me, being a guy and liking that kind of thing, you know, military, ROTC … it seemed normal,” he said.