Closing Parkland’s open wound: The dismantling of a crime scene
Editor’s note: Senior reporter Rafael Olmeda covers criminal justice and anchored the Sun Sentinel’s coverage of the sentencing trial of the Parkland shooter. Olmeda was one of the few journalists allowed into MSD’s 1200 building with the jurors, and he was also present Friday in Parkland when the demolition of the crime scene got underway.
No one who went to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine’s Day 2018 left unharmed. Physically unwounded, sure. But not unharmed.
For their sake, a piece at a time, it’s finally coming down.
The stairs that the gunman used to walk from the second to the third are gone, torn out in one chunk like a gangrenous limb, dropped to the ground with a muffled crash early Friday afternoon.
Earlier, the same demolition equipment chewed its way into the classroom Scott Biegel died to protect. It’s reduced to rubble now, as the whole building soon will be. As it should be.
And it’s about time.
Not that it could or should have happened any sooner. But heaven forbid it should happen any later. We must never forget what happened here, and we will not. When Nikolas Cruz smugly decided to court notoriety by shooting his way through the freshman building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, he made victims of hundreds of people — not just the 17 he murdered and the 17 who managed to survive their gunshot wounds.
He made victims of those he missed, of those who had to step slowly over the bodies of their slain classmates lest they slip on their blood, of those who raced from the campus on Feb. 14, 2018, and of those who raced to the school to find their children.
The building had to stand so that jurors deciding the gunman’s fate could see what he left behind. The jury did that on Aug. 4, 2022. They had to. As powerful as words are, they cannot convey what those walls hid from the public. To step inside that building was to be confronted with the reason states like Florida still insist the death penalty is a necessary punishment for the worst of the worst crimes.
If this was not the worst of the worst, what could be?
Demolition begins on the 1200 Building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the site of the Valentine’s Day 2018 massacre that took 17 lives and left 17 more wounded. The northeast stairwell and a portion of Scott Beigel’s third floor classroom are exposed in this Friday, June 14, 2024, photo. Beigel, was killed in the 2018 shootings. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
What appears to be student work can be seen on the wall of teacher Scott Beigel’s third floor classroom can be seen as demolition begins on the 1200 Building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the site of the Valentine’s Day 2018 massacre that took 17 lives and left 17 more wounded. Beigel, was killed in the 2018 shootings. Photographed on Friday, June 14, 2024. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Demolition begins on the 1200 Building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the site of the Feb. 14, 2018, massacre where 17 people were killed and 17 others injured. The northeast stairwell and a portion of Scott Beigel’s third floor classroom are exposed in this image. Beigel was one of the adults who were killed. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
The word “GEOGRAPHY” can be seen on the board in what was teacher Scott Beigel’s third floor classroom as demolition begins on the 1200 Building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the site of the Valentine’s Day 2018 massacre that took 17 lives and left 17 more wounded. Beigel, was killed in the 2018 shootings. Photographed on Friday, June 14, 2024. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Max Schachter speaks to the media as demolition begins on the 1200 Building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the site of the Valentine’s Day 2018 massacre that took 17 lives and left 17 more wounded. Schachter’s son, Alex, was killed in the shootings. Photographed on Friday, June 14, 2024. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
A woman clears debris from a memorial garden as demolition begins on the 1200 Building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the site of the Valentine’s Day 2018 massacre that took 17 lives and left 17 more wounded. The old freshman building at MSD has not been used since the shootings. Photographed on Friday, June 14, 2024. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Tony Montalto walks with his wife, Jennifer, and son, Anthony, on campus just before the start of demolition of the 1200 Building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the site of the Valentine’s Day 2018 massacre that took 17 lives and left 17 more wounded. Montalto’s daughter, Gina, was killed in the shootings. Photographed on Friday, June 14, 2024. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Demolition begins on the 1200 Building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the site of the Valentine’s Day 2018 massacre that took 17 lives and left 17 more wounded. The old freshman building at MSD has not been used since the shootings. Photographed on Friday, June 14, 2024. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Demolition begins on the 1200 Building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the site of the Valentine’s Day 2018 massacre that took 17 lives and left 17 more wounded. The old freshman building at MSD has not been used since the shootings. Photographed on Friday, June 14, 2024. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Onlookers take photos as demolition begins on the 1200 Building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the site of the Valentine’s Day 2018 massacre that took 17 lives and left 17 more wounded. The old freshman building at MSD has not been used since the shootings. Photographed on Friday, June 14, 2024. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Tony Montalto speaks to the media as demolition begins on the 1200 Building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the site of the Valentine’s Day 2018 massacre that took 17 lives and left 17 more wounded. Montalto’s daughter, Gina, was killed in the shootings. Photographed on Friday, June 14, 2024. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Demolition begins on the 1200 Building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the site of the Valentine’s Day 2018 massacre that took 17 lives and left 17 more wounded. The old freshman building at MSD has not been used since the shootings. Photographed on Friday, June 14, 2024. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Workers prepare for demolition of the 1200 Building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the site of the Valentine’s Day 2018 massacre that took 17 lives and left 17 more wounded. The old freshman building at MSD has not been used since the shootings. Photographed on Friday, June 14, 2024. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Lori Alhadeff speaks with former MSD special education teacher Joanne Wallace through a fence as demolition begins on the 1200 Building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the site of the Valentine’s Day 2018 massacre that took 17 lives and left 17 more wounded. Alhadeff’s daughter, Alyssa, was killed in the shootings. Photographed on Friday, June 14, 2024. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Demolition begins on the 1200 Building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the site of the Valentine’s Day 2018 massacre that took 17 lives and left 17 more wounded. The old freshman building at MSD has not been used since the shootings. Photographed on Friday, June 14, 2024. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Lori Alhadeff holds a picture of her daughter, Alyssa, as demolition begins on the 1200 Building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the site of the Valentine’s Day 2018 massacre that took 17 lives and left 17 more wounded. Alyssa was killed in the shootings. Photographed on Friday, June 14, 2024. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Workers pass the east entrance of the 1200 Building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the door the gunman used to enter the building and perpetuate the Valentine’s Day 2018 massacre that took 17 lives and left 17 more wounded. The old freshman building at MSD has not been used since the shootings. Photographed on Friday, June 14, 2024. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Former MSD special education teacher Joanne Wallace watch as demolition begins on the 1200 Building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the site of the Valentine’s Day 2018 massacre that took 17 lives and left 17 more wounded. The old freshman building at MSD has not been used since the shootings. Photographed on Friday, June 14, 2024. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Debbie Hixon and her son, Corey, arrive before the start of the demolition begins on the 1200 Building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the site of the Valentine’s Day 2018 massacre that took 17 lives and left 17 more wounded. The old freshman building at MSD has not been used since the shootings. Photographed on Friday, June 14, 2024. Hixon’s husband and Corey’s father, Christopher, was killed in the 2018 shootings. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Lori Alhadeff walks with her husband, Ilan, past heavy equipment just before the start of demolition of the 1200 Building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the site of the Valentine’s Day 2018 massacre that took 17 lives and left 17 more wounded. The Alhadeff’s daughter, Alyssa, was killed in the shootings. Photographed on Friday, June 14, 2024. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
The jury ultimately extended to Cruz a mercy of which he seemed incapable that Valentine’s Day. He was sentenced to 34 consecutive terms of life in prison. His precise location in the Florida Department of Corrections remains a closely guarded secret.
With the jury’s work done, calls for the building’s demolition began. There was talk of allowing a second jury inside to decide the fate of former School Resource Officer Scot Peterson, the armed deputy whose decision not to enter building compelled prosecutors to charge him with multiple counts of felony child neglect.
This time, jurors were not allowed inside. Peterson was found not guilty in 2023.
The calls to demolish the building began to intensify. But first the litigants in a civil trial wanted to send an expert into the building to re-enact the shooting to demonstrate what sounds could or could not be heard outside the building.
Then the family members of the victims were permitted to walk through. Then legislators and other public officials tasked with crafting public policy on gun rights and control. It seemed for a time that every visit, every tour would be the last.
And the building stood a little longer because it was the middle of the school year and no one could fathom embarking on this project with students on campus every day.
All along, Parkland residents have had to endure the site’s presence as a constant reminder of how close their loved ones came to death.
The building had to stand as long as it has. The demolition could not have happened sooner. But heaven forbid it should happen any later. No, now it can’t come down fast enough.
