FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The Parkland building where a teenage gunman shot and killed 17 people will continue to stand at least until next year, even though the jury deciding the gunman’s fate has already finished its tour of the crime scene.
The former freshman building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School was originally preserved so that its blood-stained hallways and classrooms could be shown to the jury deciding whether confessed killer Nikolas Cruz should be sentenced to life in prison or death.
But earlier this year, another judge ordered the building’s preservation so that a second jury can visit it. The second jury will decide what happens to the only other person charged in connection with the 2018 mass shooting, former Broward Sheriff’s Deputy Scot Peterson, the school resource officer accused of child neglect for taking cover when the shooting started instead of trying to find Cruz.
The decision to preserve the scene has been the source of anguished debate in the four-and-a-half years since the shooting, which also injured 17. Everyone agrees it should come down, but in the case against Cruz, prosecutors wanted the building to remain intact so jurors could put the testimony of witnesses and medical experts into context.
Defense lawyers for Cruz warned that the site visit would overwhelm the jury emotionally and jeopardize the defendant’s right to a fair trial.
In the Peterson case, the defense wants jurors to tour the scene. Only then, said defense lawyer Mark Eiglarsh, can the jury gain an understanding of why Peterson believed the shooting might have been coming from somewhere other than the inside of the freshman building.
Prosecutors in the Peterson case did not oppose Eiglarsh’s motion to preserve the scene, but they want the jury to go into the 1200 building as well.
Broward Circuit Judge Martin Fein, who is presiding over the Peterson case, has not ruled on the extent of the upcoming jury’s visit. Jury selection is slated to begin in early February.
In the meantime, the building will remain in place, a constant reminder to the Stoneman Douglas and Parkland communities of the terror of 2018.
Demolition cannot begin until the next jury’s work is complete. The Broward school district has yet to even hire someone to knock the building down because no one can reliably set a demolition date. At a recent school board workshop, Deputy Superintendent for Operations Judith Marte said the district will try to have a vendor in place “to make sure that building comes down as soon as possible” once courts no longer determine it’s needed as evidence in criminal trials.
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(Staff writer Scott Travis contributed to this report.)
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