FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The horrifying sounds of gunshots, screams and pleas for help filled a Broward County courtroom Thursday on the first day of the trial to determine if the confessed Parkland shooter is put to death.
Prosecutor Mike Satz shared grim details of the mass shooting in his opening statement and brought on witnesses to describe what it was like to be at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High on Feb. 14, 2018. Seventeen were killed and 17 others were wounded.
“We were sitting ducks. There was no way to protect ourselves,” said Danielle Gilbert, who was a junior at Stoneman Douglas at the time.
She was in a first-floor classroom where four students were shot, one fatally, Carmen Schentrup, after the killer fired bullets through the door’s window. A teacher had the students attempt to hide behind her desk, Gilbert said.
She turned on her cellphone video and started recording, which was shown to jurors. Gilbert grew visibly upset on the stand during the playback.
The audio included cries from a boy, obviously in pain, moaning and pleading “Someone help me” several times as students talked about the bullets and whispered about police coming to get them.
The cellphone video that was seen by the jury but only heard by the public in the courtroom gallery included many gunshots, an alarm going off, and many people screaming. Several people left the courtroom as it was played.
A second video clip introduced as evidence at high volume left the sound of heavy gunfire echoing in the courtroom.
“Shut it off!” one family member pleaded from the audience. The outburst, as well as the volume at which the video was played, prompted defense attorney Melisa McNeill to call for a mistrial, saying it would prejudice the jury against their client. The motion was denied.
Satz had warned the jury that the details would be horrific.
“I’m going to speak to you about the unspeakable,” he told the jury as he started his opening statement early in the day.
He said killer Nikolas Cruz had planned to be a school shooter for a long time. He described a video that Cruz made three days before the killing bragging that he was going to be the “next school shooter” and that he hoped to kill at least 20.
Satz said 139 shots were fired, 70 on the first floor, two in the west stairwell, six on the second floor and 61 on the third floor.
There were no bullets that entered her classroom, but former teacher Brittany Sinitch described the sound of gunfire as nonstop. She called 911 at the time, and the courtroom heard the call played back as part of her testimony on Monday.
She cried as she listened to the playback, a series of gunshots echoing in the background of her voice and the dispatcher’s.
Satz described the shootings in cold, clinical detail, pointing out not only who was shot but how many times, whether they survived, and the ages of those who died.
Satz recited the weapon’s serial number from memory. He recited details of each death, each injury, without consulting notes.
“All 17 were heinous, atrocious and cruel,” Satz said. “All 17 were cold. Calculated. Manipulative. And deadly.”
Satz described the killer walking over bodies to leave the school, taking off his vest and rifle, laying it down in the stairwell, and running out.
Wearing a maroon JROTC Stoneman Douglas shirt, black pants and a blue baseball cap, Cruz ran out and blended in with students and teachers who were evacuating because a fire alarm had gone off, Satz said. The killer went to Walmart where he bought an Icee from the Subway before heading to a nearby McDonald’s.
At McDonald's, Cruz ran into student John Wilford, who didn’t know that Cruz had shot his sister, Maddy. Cruz asked Wilford for a ride, which he declined, saying he was waiting for him mom to pick him up, Satz said.
Cruz then started heading to a nearby subdivision where Coconut Creek Police Officer Mike Leonard saw him and arrested him, Satz said.
The first 911 call, from Sinitch, was played, and gunshots could be heard in the background.
During the trial, Sinitch described the moment she heard the gunshots in the 1200 building of the high school. It was during the fourth period — nearing the end of the school day. Her students had been reading "Romeo and Juliet" and were writing Valentine’s Day cards when she heard “the loudest noise you could possibly imagine,” as she described in her testimony.
Emotions were visibly high in the courtroom. Some jurors struggled to keep their emotions in check, but most listened intently without flinching as Satz detailed every injury, every death on Valentine’s Day. Family members of victims also became emotional.
Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jaime was killed, wiped his eyes, then shook his head and mouthed to someone he was OK. Max Schachter, whose son Alex was killed, looked down, hand over face, shaking his head. Several women repeatedly dabbed at tears.
The trial began on Monday with questions about whether a juror had discussed the case prior to the trial.
Judge Elizabeth Scherer said she had an affidavit from someone saying that one juror had spoken with someone about the case, including the juror’s feelings about the death penalty. But the juror flatly denied it, saying it wasn’t true.
Scherer said she was inclined to believe the juror.
“The juror has never been anything but forthcoming,” she said.
More than a dozen camera crews were set up outside the Broward County Courthouse in downtown Fort Lauderdale on Monday morning. The congestion closed down Southeast Sixth street and prompted curiosity from the public.
Passers-by — some aware of the Cruz trial, some not — took in their surroundings. Their chatter floated through the building’s outdoor breezeway all the way up to the 17th floor.
“You see all that news right there?” “What floor is the trial on?” and “I just want to get over this whole nonsense.”
During the first break of the day, two observers left the courtroom on the 17th floor for bagels from the courthouse café on the ground level.
“Being in the same room as that guy (Cruz) is crazy,” one said to the other.
“Yeah, it must be so surreal for him,” the second replied.
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