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.
