PARKLAND, Fla. – The 1200 Building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland stands as a haunting reminder of the 2018 mass shooting at the school that claimed the lives of 17 people.
The freshman building is where the victims were gunned down on Valentine’s Day 2018.
Armed with an AR-15-style rifle, then 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz fatally shot 14 students and three staff members and wounded another 17 people.
During the Parkland shooter’s penalty phase, jurors toured the building, preserved as a crime scene, bearing witness to bloodstained hallways and classrooms punctuated by day of love mementos – a chilling view of terror suspended in time.
“It remains the District’s intent to demolish the 1200 Building as soon as possible once it is released by the State Attorney’s Office,” a spokesperson for Broward County Public Schools confirmed.
The building still stands since it remains part of a case -- this time for the upcoming trial of Scot Peterson, a former Broward Sheriff’s Office deputy facing several charges, including multiple counts of child neglect related to the school shooting.
The judge in the case granted a defense motion to transport jurors to the crime scene.
“I didn’t want to file the motion. On a personal level I want to keep everyone away from that scene,” Peterson’s attorney, Mark Eiglarsh, said. “Professionally, it is necessary for jurors to get the proper perspective.”
“I would never have these jurors walk through that building and experience the trauma that I went through in seeing the abhorrent aftermath of what this shooter did -- I would never do that,” he added. “I simply want the jurors to have a perspective of where my client was positioned and how there can be a pronounced echo in that area that 30 to 40 witnesses experienced, making it almost impossible to determine the precise location from where the shots were coming from.”
As for what happens once the building is eventually demolished, the school district says future plans for the site have yet to be determined.
Related Links:
August 4, 2022: Parkland Trial Jurors tour 1200 building preserved as a crime scene
October 14, 2022: Parkland shooter’s case: ‘Secondary trauma’ likely to affect jurors