Bullet holes also mark the walls of the school in Parkland, Florida, where Nikolas Cruz killed 14 students and three staff members.
A strand of dark hair remains on the floor more than four years after a victim’s body was removed. Valentine’s Day gifts and cards are scattered as shards of glass crunch under visitors’ feet.
Those are the troubling notes from a group of reporters who were allowed into the building after jurors finished their review to provide details to media around the country, including CNN.
FIRST FLOOR
We entered from the east staircase just as Cruz did. On the staircase where Cruz assembled his gun is a dirty white teddy bear and two small bags of Valentine’s Day gifts.
In the stairwell where Cruz entered and assembled his gun, a stuffed white teddy bear lay soiled on the floor next to a bag with Valentine hearts on it, possibly dropped by a fleeing student.
Everywhere you walk around the building there are pieces of broken safety glass that crunch loudly as you walk over them. They are especially noisy and crunch on the threshold of every door.
ROOM 1218
Brittany Sinich’s English Class: No casualties or injuries here, but this is where Cruz fired the first shot. The textbooks on the desks were open to a section discussing Mercutio. On one desk was a teddy bear for Valentine’s Day. A 2017 Stoneman Douglas football poster was on the wall — a team photo with the motto: Faith Family Football. A pink note saying Happy Valentine’s Day sat on a desk next to a worksheet belonging to student Sarah Lewis. A clear plastic drink cup sat half full on a desk, its contents now a dark brown sediment. On the desk, a Valentine card that reads “I don’t just like you, I really, really like you.”
ROOM 1215
Study hall led by Spanish teacher Huletta Matlock: There is dried blood outside the door where Luke Hoyer, Martin Duque, and Gina Montalto were killed. Just inside the door lay a couple of headphones with a long cord on the floor. The book To Kill a Mockingbird remains on the desk. On the wall is a poster titled “Let’s Talk About It With Guac” with basic Spanish words: Padre, Madre, Abuelo, Abuela.” On another wall is a poster with common Spanish phrases and colors.
ROOM 1213 — Ronit Reoven’s AP Psychology class:
On the far wall from the door is a table with a large pool of blood on it. This is where Carmen Schentrup died of a gunshot wound to the head. She and the children hid behind the teacher’s desk, which is in the southeast corner of the room. In front of the desk where Maddie Wilford lay injured, the teacher’s phone lay on the floor. On the walls behind the desk are photos of what appears to be the teacher’s family and an 8 X 10 drawing of President Trump with the caption “We Will Win in Everything We Do.” On the north wall is a bulletin board with about two dozen wallet-sized photos of students. A lone white sneaker remains on the floor.
CORRIDOR – HICKSON SITE
Hickson, after being shot rushing through the west door, hid in an alcove outside the elevator about 20 feet from the door. Cruz shot him a second time as he walked by, but he survived and spent about 10 minutes trying to get up, according to the video played in court. There is a large bloodstain on the floor and on the wall. There on the floor was a black rubber shoe, probably a Croc.
Room 1214 — “Holocaust Room” – Teacher Ivy Shamis’ room
He taught Holocaust studies. This is where Nick Durrett and Helena Ramsey died.
The whiteboard has the hashtag #TogetherWeRemember. There are also references to eyewitness accounts. There are two yellowed Sun Sentinel newspapers on one table, bullet marks on the desks, laptops still open, headphones and a bottle of water still on the desk. A calendar for the 2017-2018 school year has been thrown on the floor. Bloody marks where Durrett and Ramsey died. Their blood covers a book called Tell Them We Remember by Susan Bachrach and Listen to the Wind by Greg Mortenson. On a bulletin board is a sign about the Holocaust with the words “we will never forget.” One desk had a white plug and earplugs on top. Showing the fast way it all unfolded
The educational goal of the board “To know the world and its surroundings.”
Room 1216
No classroom has had as many killed and wounded as Dara Hass’s English class. A blue folder with Alaina Petty’s name on it is still on the desk – right behind it – there is a large blood stain between the teacher’s desk and the wall. Bullet holes in the walls.
Right next to the bloodstain on the floor where Alyssa Alkhadef and Alaina Petty died – there is a handwritten document about Malala Yousafzai – “the girl who wanted to go to school” – the newspaper continues saying “the bullet went right through her head, but not her brain,” ending with “In conclusion, we the people must have freedom of education.”
(Note: Malala is the Pakistani girl who was shot by the Taliban – she fought to protect access to education for girls and women).
Essays written by students remain on their desks and can never be retrieved. “We go to school every day of the week and take everything for granted,” wrote one student. “We cry and complain, not knowing how lucky we are to be able to learn.”
A previous assignment is displayed on the cabinet doors. It shows tombstones with epitaphs written by the students.
“RIP It’s nice here.”
“RIP Here lies the funny.”
“RIP It’s nice here.”
Next to a shoe on the ground is a pink stuffed animal for Valentine’s Day and balloons.
Collected blood appears stale, dark, sticky, scaly.
The desks are covered with a thin layer of dust, a landline phone lies upside down on the ground.
On Alex Schachter’s desk, a bloodstain on the other side of a silver rod that connects the plastic seat to the desk.
WEST STAIRCASE
Near the west stairs – where Hixon was shot – there is a discarded shoe.
SECOND FLOOR – QUOTES CORRIDOR
Corridor offer between rooms 1221 and 1229
“Dream as if you will live forever, live as if you will die today.” – James Dean
Further down the corridor it says:
“Never live in the past, but always shape it.” – anonymous
Room 1230
A large heart-shaped box of Valentine’s Day chocolates on a desk.
On another open pen and pencil case.
Room 1232
Calculators still on desks, spiral notebooks still open for math subjects, students working on algebra problems.
Room 1231
Grouped desks
Photos of students from “Vipusk 2018” in a casual setting (not official photos).
THIRD FLOOR
Room 1256, Scott Bagel’s classroom:
Entering the corridor from the eastern staircase, the first thing you see is a pool of caked blood, which is much smaller than the others. This is where Scott Bagel’s body falls in front of classroom 1256. Unlike other rooms, its door window is intact. Bagel died holding the door open. His body prevented the door from closing. The children hiding in the front of his room were vulnerable, but Cruz chose not to enter it.
Plastic world maps the size of a placemat on most desks. There were three wall clocks lying face down by the door. On Bagel’s desk were worksheets comparing Christianity and Islam. On the whiteboard were notes about the 2018 Winter Olympic medal winners. A deflated Valentine’s Day balloon lay on the ground.
Room 1255, Stacey Lippel’s classroom:
The door opens – like others, to show that Cruz fired at it – and inside hangs “No Harassment Zone”. On the whiteboard is written the creative task for the day: “How to write the perfect love letter.”
The teacher’s desk is on the left and one can imagine students huddled behind it. Desks are in disarray, some pushed on top of each other in what testimony described as a mad dash back to get back inside. On one desk is an enviable Valentine’s Day present – a large gift bag with tissues stuffed inside, a box of round, silver-wrapped candies, and a heart-shaped box.
Moving down the corridor, dry, cracked rose petals mixed with the glass shards give the scene a cinematic feel. There is a large pool of blood in the middle of the third floor hallway where Anthony Borges was wounded. A sign above the fountains has a quote from Yoda from Star Wars: “Do or do not. There is no experience.”
Below the fountains, three large pools of dried blood mark the spots where authorities dragged the bodies of Cara Loughran, Meadow Pollack and Joaquin Oliver. A faint trail of blood traces the path of the girls’ bodies from the alcove where their bodies fell after being shot. A pool of blood is seen in the alcove outside 1249 where Pollack and Lawran died. They remained there, wounded, as the rest of the group, who were huddled in the alcove with Ernie Rospierski, fled down the hall. Cruz then returned and shot them again.
ROOM 1249, Ernie Rospierski
There is an unfinished game of chess. A friend of Peter Young testified that they were playing a game when the fire alarm went off.
Room 1250
Valentine balloons, flower petals, white teddy bear.
One of the most disturbing sights is the alcove in front of the bathroom where Joaquin Oliver died. There is a large pool of blood and bullet holes shot into him at close range. There are drops of blood leading into the alcove from the first shots where he was wounded. But most of the blood is from when Cruise caught up with Oliver in the alcove and fired. We know from the evidence that Oliver was conscious after being hit. He couldn’t run when others were running. He heard Cruz coming. He heard the shots fired at Pollack and Lawran. He knew he was next. We know from the testimony that he put his hands up to defend himself. Two bullets in the wall show how futile this attempt was. There is a strand of dark hair on the floor near where his body would be. The corner of a heart-shaped paper Valentine decoration (may have been a card) is bent, possibly soaked in blood
Moving down the corridor towards the west wall, bullets graze the south walls, an indication that Cruz was aiming for the fleeing students and not just firing randomly forward…
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