Congressional delegation tours site of Parkland massacre

A group of nine Congressional members Friday toured the site of the 2018 Parkland massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 14 students and three staff members were shot and killed. 

The bipartisan visit to the Florida school, led by Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) and Mario Diaz-Balart, (R-Fla.) comes on the same day ballistic experts will conduct a reenactment of the shooting as part of a lawsuit filed by the victims’ families against the Broward Sheriff’s Office and former Deputy Scot Peterson over allegedly failing to protect the victims.

The three-story building has remained locked for use as evidence in the penalty trial for gunman Nikolas Cruz, who was sentenced to life in prison without parole last year. 

House members were shown the door Cruz used to enter the school and then spent an hour and 40 minutes walking Cruz’s path during the six-minute attack. 

The Associated Press was one of five media outlets allowed to tour the building after Cruz’s jury walked through. It reported that the building has broken glass on the floor, deflated balloons, wilted roses and opened textbooks and laptop computers still on students’ desks. 

Friday’s visit, the first Congressional delegation trip of its kind, was suggested by Max Schachter, the father of a 14-year-old who was killed in the shooting. The delegation included six Democrats and three Republicans on the House School Safety and Security Caucus.

Members of the delegation and families later held a safety roundtable. Moskowitz has been a vocal advocate of tighter gun laws since the Valentine’s Day shooting in 2018. 

“You’re not going to walk through this and then get out a pen and paper and start writing down your policy ideas,” he said. “But we have got to figure out how no other families become part of this exclusive club no one wants to belong to.” 

Ballistic members are expected to fire up to 139 shots of live ammunition as part of the reenactment Friday, using an identical AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle to the one Cruz used. The test, which is expected to last several hours, aims to recreate what Peterson heard during the six-minute attack. 

Peterson claims he could not hear all the shots and could not locate their origin due to echoes. He took cover in a neighboring building with his gun drawn and stayed there for 40 minutes. He was found not guilty on all counts related to his actions that day in a separate criminal trial in June. 

The Associated Press contributed.