South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Who we are: Our team is ready for Cruz’s sentencing
We were there in the beginning. And we’re staying through the end.
Sun Sentinel reporters, editors and photographers began covering the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland minutes after it happened on Feb.
14, 2018. Almost every staff member reported on the shootings and got to know the people of Parkland as they mourned the murder of 17 students and teachers in the deadliest high school shooting in U.S. history. An additional 17 people were severely injured.
The shooter, Nikolas Cruz, now
23, pleaded guilty in October to 17 counts of first-degree murder and
17 counts of attempted murder. But a jury must still decide whether he will be executed or receive a life sentence without parole. Jury selection begins April 4 and the Sun Sentinel is marshaling our staff to make sure we cover these climactic moments completely and precisely.
In the years since the shootings, we have reported on the aftermath in detail, from the funerals to the student marches for gun safety to the failures of law enforcement, social services and the Broward school district. We won the Pulitzer Prize for public service in 2019 for our 10-month effort to reveal how so many could be murdered in a school considered one of the safest in Florida.
The Sun Sentinel’s coverage sparked significant changes in law enforcement and school safety and led to legislation to hold schools more accountable for crimes that occur on their campuses.
We are planning detailed coverage of jury selection and the penalty trial. Almost everyone in our newsroom will be involved, reporting from the courtroom, taking photos and interviewing still-mourning families. Here’s a look at the key people who will be reporting on this next momentous step as our community tries to heal from incomprehensible tragedy.
Brooke Baitinger, reporter Brooke Baitinger covers education and youth culture for the Sun Sentinel. She studied journalism at the University of Florida and came back to write for her hometown newspaper. She attended Broward County public schools and attended debate tournaments at Marjory Stoneman Douglas in high school.
Amy Beth Bennett, photographer
Amy Beth Bennett was one of three Sun Sentinel photojournalists dispatched to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on the day of the shootings. She has served as the main courtroom photographer for the criminal cases involving Cruz and has spent many hours in court and on assignments with the families of the survivors and victims. She said she has been“humbled at their resilience and determination. So many lives were forever changed because of injury and trauma. And yet they forge ahead.”
Susannah Bryan, reporter
Susannah Bryan covers several government beats for the Sun Sentinel, including Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood. She is a University of Florida grad and Florida native. She reported several Parkland stories, interviewing teachers, students and parents in the days and months after the shooting. She also covered the one-year anniversary and was deeply moved by the many people still in tears.
Joe Cavaretta, photographer
“I remember it was Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s Day,” said Joe Cavaretta, who has been a photographer at the Sun Sentinel for 16 years.“My early shift had ended and I had ash on my forehead and my two girls in the car after picking them up from school ... The next morning and for countless days after, I was part of the ‘media circus’ lined up in front of the school,”he said.“I previously worked for the Associated Press and I was one of those journalists who parachuted into these kinds of situations many times, but this time was different. This time it was in our backyard, our hometown.”
Ben Crandell, reporter
Ben Crandell is a fourth-generation newspaperman and a longtime editor and staff writer who began writing stories about Parkland in the days after the 2018 shooting, profiling parents, students, teachers and city residents, as well as the anti-gunviolence movement that came later.
David Fleshler, reporter
David Fleshler covers the
environment for the Sun Sentinel, having previously covered Broward County government and the city of Hollywood. He was involved in the Parkland shooting from the first day, when he was lead writer on the Sun Sentinel’s primary story on the massacre. His work then began to focus on investigating the Broward School District’s response, the failures of the Broward Sheriff’s Office and the state commission formed to investigate the shooting.
Lisa Huriash, reporter
Lisa Huriash covers Broward County government and has been at the paper since she was a college intern. She has been on the staff since
1994 and was involved in Parkland coverage from the first hours. Her stories and exclusives include a piece on the former Secret Service agent who had warned the school about its security failures just months before, video surveillance delays within the building that slowed down police, and locked bathrooms on the third floor which left students with no place to hide.
Carline Jean, photographer
Carline Jean has been a visual journalist for the Sun Sentinel for
27 years.“The shooting will forever change how I look at young people, politics and how pain can be transformed into action,” she said. “Journalists are supposed to be stoic while on duty, but I can’t tell you how many times I found myself fighting back tears at many assignments relating to the shooting.”
Michael Laughlin, photographer
Michael Laughlin started working at the Sun Sentinel in 1998. Born in Miami, he grew up in Orlando and graduated from the University of Central Florida. He is a general assignment photographer specializing in sports, news and entertainment. Laughlin photographed many candlelight vigils throughout Broward County after the Parkland massacre.
John McCall, photographer
John McCall was the first to file a photo from the scene the day of the shooting. At the time, he worked on the Sun Sentinel’s video edit desk, but his proximity to Parkland from Deerfield Beach got him on the scene before most. He has been at the Sun Sentinel for five years and is a University of Miami graduate.
Rafael Olmeda, reporter
Rafael Olmeda is a veteran reporter who joined the Sun Sentinel in 1999 after six years at the New York Daily News. He has served as president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and Unity: Journalists of Color. He is currently a member of the national board of the Society of Professional Journalists. He has covered breaking news, education and criminal justice. After the Stoneman Douglas massacre, he was the first to track down a crucial witness who saw the gunman preparing his attack. Olmeda has been covering legal developments in the criminal case since charges were filed.
Mike Stocker, photographer
Mike Stocker has photographed just about everything imaginable during his 24 years at the Sun Sentinel. He said the tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas was the most impactful experience of his career. He wanted to give those most affected by the events of that day an opportunity to speak out, and launched the portrait/video series “Voices of Change.”The four-part series documented over 50 people, including students, faculty, families and others who have been affected by the tragedy.
Susan Stocker, photographer
Susan Stocker has been a staff photographer with the Sun Sentinel for 35 years. It’s been her“one and only newspaper job since graduating from the University of Florida in 1986 and interning at the Sun Sentinel.” She worked daily assignments in the aftermath of the shooting and traveled with a group of student
Jean
activists to Tallahassee as they met with state legislators to try to get gun control laws passed. Her piece “A Permanent Remembrance”is a collection of photo portraits and audio interviews of family, friends and teachers who got tattoos to memorialize the students, friends and loved ones they had lost.
Scott Travis, reporter
Scott Travis has been an education writer for the Sun Sentinel for 22 years. He was a lead reporter in the newspaper’s coverage of the Parkland tragedy. Travis has won numerous state and national awards, both individually and as part of a team, including first-place honors from the Education Writers Association, Florida Society of News Editors, News Leaders Association, the Society of Professional Journalists Sunshine State awards and the Florida Press Club. The Society of Professional Journalists has twice named him a finalist for Florida’s Journalist of the Year. He graduated from the University of Alabama and previously worked at newspapers in North Carolina and Mississippi.
Brittany Wallman, senior reporter on the investigative team
Brittany Wallman has been a reporter at the Sun Sentinel for 24 years. When the shooting occurred, she was the Fort Lauderdale City Hall writer. She has since shifted to the investigations team. Wallman’s Stoneman Douglas reporting delved into the life of the shooter, his cultlike following on social media, the efforts of the Broward school district to cover up its culpability, the FBI’s bungling of two ominous tips, and the many changes brought about by the tragedy. She flew to Washington, D.C., to help cover March for Our Lives. Wallman and former colleague Megan O’Matz also spent months investigating Florida’s Red Flag law, passed in response to the shootings, which allows judges to require individuals to surrender their guns.