FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The jury within the Parkland sentencing trial heard extra emotional testimony Wednesday as academics and college students recalled the tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018.
Former scholar Ashley Baez took the stand and recounted how she was in band class on the day of the capturing however had to make use of the lavatory, prompting her to go to the freshman constructing.
Baez stated she noticed somebody within the stairwell of the constructing that seemed to be a safety or administrator that appeared “freaked out.”
She stated she rotated as a result of she noticed that individual run up the steps.
As she rotated, Baez stated she noticed Nikolas Cruz popping out of the stairwell, prompting her to show round. She stated that’s when the firing began, prompting her to run to the lavatory, however she found it was locked.
(Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel through AP, Pool)
She then discovered an unlocked classroom, so she went in there.
While she was within the hallway, she didn’t notice at that second that she had been shot within the leg.
“I had a bullet wound enter my right leg and then explode on my left side,” Baez stated.
She stated she had 4 surgical procedures after the capturing to restore her wounds.
A second witness on Wednesday, Genesis Valentin, recalled being in Dara Hass’ English class when she began listening to gunshots.
After she and her classmates heard three photographs, they began to cover, based on her testimony.
Since it was Valentine’s Day, she stated they thought it was balloons at first however knew it was one thing critical after listening to extra photographs.
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Valentin was injured by shrapnel to her legs from the gunfire.
She recounted how she noticed Alaina Petty and Alyssa Alhadeff, two of her classmates, lifeless after the capturing.
“They were both instantly gone after being wounded,” Valentin stated.
Ivy Schamis, a former social research instructor, was instructing the historical past of the Holocaust when the capturing began that day.
She testified how she and her roughly 30 college students stopped their classes after listening to the gunshots, searching for cowl the place ever they might.
“We were all sort of down on the ground, on the floor, trying to hide behind whatever we could,” Schamis stated. “It was really seconds later that the barrel of that AR-15 just ambushed our classroom.”
(Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel through AP, Pool)
She stated the sound was extraordinarily loud because the bullets tore by means of the glass panels of a classroom door.
She then began to listen to extra gunshots from throughout the corridor.
“The students were quite mature. I was unbelievably proud, and they were incredibly brave,” Schamis stated.
She then recognized for the court docket Helena Ramsay and Nicholas Dworet, each of who had been college students in her class that died within the tragedy.
Four different college students in Schamis’ classroom had been injured however survived their wounds.
(Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel through AP, Pool)
Juletta Matlock, a instructor on the faculty, was in examine corridor with about 29 college students and testified that she heard three loud bangs. However, she at first thought it was a drill, telling the scholars to stay calm.
But the sounds “just kept coming and kept coming,” Matlock testified. She stated there have been so many gunshots that she could not keep in mind what number of had been fired.
Martin Duque and Luke Hoyer had been inside her classroom on the time and requested to go to the college’s media middle.
Matlock testified that she gave each of them the move to depart her room. They had been later killed within the gunfire.
She allowed others to depart the classroom, together with Gina Montalto, to go to an outcove in entrance of the room to work on a venture.
Montalto would later even be killed within the gunfire.
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Ronit Reoven, a instructor of psychology and geography, recounted how she heard the “whimpering and the moans and groans from the kids that were shot” in her classroom.
Reoven testified that 4 of her college students had been hit by gunfire within the rampage.
“At that point, I knew that I had to try to do something for the kids that were injured,” Reoven stated.
She recounted giving one injured scholar water who pleaded for assist. She stated she additionally used a blanket to make use of as a tourniquet for one more injured who was shot within the arm and bleeding.
However, she described seeing considered one of her different college students, Carmen Schentrup, unresponsive.
“She wasn’t moving, and she was just laying there … face down,” Reoven stated. “I knew that she was probably gone.”
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Stacey Lippel, testified Wednesday that she was instructing inventive writing to about 38 college students when she began listening to “a popping sound.”
Lippel stated she later ordered her college students out of the room to evacuate after listening to the hearth alarm go off. After leaving the classroom along with her college students, she heard children screaming after which gunshots.
Lippel recounted a chaotic scene and recognizing Cruz within the stairwell whereas college students ran for security again inside her classroom.
“My memory is that (Cruz) was standing in front of the stairwell sort of splaying the rifle back and forth,” Lippel stated. “It was just shot after shot after shot. It just never stopped.”
She stated she acquired inside 20 toes of Cruz.
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As Lippel was closing her classroom door, she heard extra gunshots being fired, a few of which pierced the glass of her door. However, nobody within the classroom was hit by the gunfire.
She recounted listening to the voice of Anthony Borges crying and screaming for assist, however she stated she was unable to open the door to assist him.
Borges survived the bloodbath after he was shot 5 instances within the leg and again, later having 14 surgical procedures throughout his restoration.
Ernest Rospierski, a historical past, geography and worldwide relations instructor on the faculty, testified Wednesday how he helped college students get to security when he heard gunshots.
He defined that two bullets grazed him within the face and hip in the course of the capturing.
Rospierski testified that he noticed Jaime Guttenberg unresponsive on the bottom.
“I reached down and shook her, trying to get some sort of reaction,” Rospierski stated. “I got nothing.”
For a lot of the testimony, Cruz has continued to look down because the witnesses recount the tragedy.
Cruz beforehand pleaded responsible to all 17 counts of premeditated homicide and 17 counts of tried homicide within the 2018 shootings.
This article was written by Scott Sutton for WPTV.
