Parkland shooting animation details the day
Victims’ parents and members of the public on Tuesday got their first glimpse of how accused Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz moved Feb. 14 through Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
A chilling animation showed Cruz — as a black dot with a line that depicted his AR-15 rifle — methodically stalking through the building and shooting victims. As each person was hit, the color of the dot that represented them changed color — from green for students and blue for teachers to yellow to show the injured and purple for the murdered.
The rudimentary video, made by investigators from the Broward Sheriff’s Office, provides the first account of Cruz’s movements during approximately six minutes and 45 seconds he spent inside the school building on Feb. 14. It was played at Tuesday’s first meeting of the state commission investigating “system failures” related to the Parkland school mass shooting.
Though the animation only showed dots moving around on a map of Building 12, it was very disturbing to watch.
“I knew which dot was my daughter, so it was pretty brutal for me,” said Andrew Pollack, whose daughter Meadow was murdered.
He is one of the panel members appointed to the commission and promised he won’t rest until he gets answers. “I want everyone in Broward to know what happened,” Pollack said.
The panel — which includes Pollack, the parents of two other murdered students, law enforcement, prosecution and education officials from around the state — held its first meeting for several hours on Tuesday on the Broward College North Campus in Coconut Creek. The commission will issue at least one report detailing the failures and recommending improvements.
How Broward County’s troubled police radio and 911 systems contributed to the chaos — and maybe some of the deaths — were some of the main topics discussed.
Panel members also raised questions about the design of classrooms at the school — discussing how teachers had to lock doors from the hallway outside and how small windows in those doors allowed the shooter to look inside and see potential victims.
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, the commission’s chairman, vowed that panel members will uncover everything relevant to the tragedy and do their best to recommend and introduce changes to prevent future incidents. He said he plans to hold most or all of the panel’s meetings in Broward County, though the panel also discussed holding some meetings in other areas of the state to hear the concerns of residents throughout Florida.
Some individuals and entities are not cooperating with the probes, Gualtieri said, but he said the panel will invoke its subpoena power to get the records it needs.
The animated video was shown during a briefing on the criminal investigation by Col. Jack Dale and homicide detective Zack Scott, of the Broward Sheriff ’s Office.
After the meeting, the commission members were brought for a private tour of the high school property. They were told they would not be allowed to enter Building 12, which is still considered an active crime scene.
Commission members will investigate what went wrong before, during and after the massacre and will also examine prior mass violence incidents. They are also required to come up with a timeline of the incident, the response and all relevant events before massacre, including any contacts Cruz had with local, state and national government agencies.
The panel members will also investigate the response by local law enforcement and school resource officers. They must also identify and evaluate policies and procedures for future school attacks and evaluate the extent to which any failures contributed to deaths and injuries.
The panel must issue an initial report on Jan. 1, and can issue yearly reports until July 2023.