‘My hand was all bloody.’ Parkland survivors recount injuries, murdered classmates

In the school stairwell, one student suddenly encountered mass shooter Nikolas Cruz, who warned him to leave because “something bad” was about to happen. Another student was scrolling on her phone when the loud bangs suddenly erupted — she found herself cowering behind a podium, shot in the knee, shrapnel wounds to the face and arms, two classmates dead beside her.

Another student, Alex Dworet, was in his English class when he heard loud, mysterious sounds — maybe, he thought, the school band was marching through the hallway.

“And then, I just remember, feeling a sensation on the back of my head, like a hot sensation,” Dworet testified on Tuesday, the second day of trial for the gunman in the Parkland school massacre. “I realized I was in danger so I reacted as quickly as possible and tried to get somewhere in cover.”

Dworet — whose brother Nicholas was killed in the massacre in another classroom — told jurors he recalled feeling a trickle down the back of his head. He reached back to feel. “My hand was all bloody,” he said.

They were part of a slew of survivors from different classrooms who testified Tuesday during the trial for Cruz, who is facing sentencing for the murder of 17 students and staffers at the Parkland high school in February 2018. Cruz pleaded guilty in October, and a jury was selected to decide whether he should be executed, or sentenced to life in prison.

Among those who took the stand were students who were shot and survived, key testimony for prosecutors looking to prove how cold and calculated Cruz’s spree was — and just how many people were put in harm’s way during Florida’s deadliest school shooting.

The first day of trial was marked by a dramatic recounting of Cruz’s massacre: In exhaustive details, Broward prosecutor Mike Satz laid out, victim by victim, the gunman’s path through the first and third floors of the freshman building.

One teacher and two former students who survived the shooting also testified on Monday about the terror of that day. Prosecutors also played video clips taken by the students that included the terrifying sounds of gunfire and students wailing, to the chagrin of emotional relatives of the dead watching in the courtroom gallery.

Tuesday’s testimony also included crucial video evidence — jurors saw school surveillance video clips from various cameras, stitched together in sequence, showing Cruz methodically gunning down student after student in the halls of the freshman building.

Relatives, reporters and members of the public were not shown the video on screens that normally display evidence in the gallery. Because of the graphic nature of the video, it was only broadcast to jurors watching on individual screens in the jury box, and to lawyers in the case. The clips had no audio.

The video was, however, seen by a group of pool reporters. The footage showed Cruz’s brief interaction with the student in the stairwell, then the gunman trotting down the hallways, purposely aiming his rifle as he opens fire at students and into classrooms. Dust falls from the ceiling, creating a ghost-like haze.

The footage was not easy to watch. It shows athletic director Christopher Hixon rushing into the hallway, only to be immediately cut down, writhing in pain. Moments later, Cruz runs back past him, casually squeezing off one more shot into him, barely breaking stride.

The footage also shows teacher Ernie Rospierski — whose heroics have been lauded — herding a group of nine terrified students into an alcove, keeping watch over them, then leading them to a stairwell as Cruz approaches. It also shows Rospierski lingering over student Jamie Guttenberg’s body in the stairwell, as Cruz peers into the window of the door on the other side.

As they watched for more than 10 minutes, jurors did not have any outward emotional reactions, although many stared intensely at the screens, some with their fingers on their lips or chins. Cruz, seated next to his lawyers, did not appear to be watching the video, instead looking away.

For the courtroom observers, the emotional gut-punch was delivered by a parade of former students who survived with varying degrees of wounds, plus another who came face to face with the killer.

Christopher McKenna told jurors that he’d gotten a pass from his English teacher to go the bathroom. As he walked through the hallway, he greeted Martin Duque and Luke Hoyer — who moments later would be shot dead.

As McKenna walked into the stairwell to go upstairs to the bathroom he encountered Cruz, wearing a maroon shirt, donning a backpack and with an AR-15 rifle in his hand.

“I was stunned,” McKenna, now a university student, told jurors. “He said to me, ‘Get out of here. Things are about to get bad.’ ”

McKenna ran outside, flagged down coach Aaron Feis, who was unlocking a school gate. Feis calmed him, drove him on a golf cart to another building and then headed to the 1200 building — where he was shot to death trying to protect students. McKennna escaped with other fleeing students.

McKenna had been in the classroom of English teacher Dara Hass, who tearfully testified that she initially believed the shots were part of a drill. But with the students screaming and shooting — and smoke and haze filling the room — she began to shepherd students away as Cruz fired through the door window.

“So many students had been injured,” she said, choking up on the stand.

Three students died in her class: Alex Schacter, Alaina Petty and Alyssa Alhadeff.

More were wounded. Kheshava Mangapuram told jurors about the stomach wound he suffered. William Olson took to the stand to say he saw his friend, Schacter, mortally wounded and he suddenly found himself on the ground, shot in the arm, covered in blood

Despite the wound to the back of the head, Alex Dworet recalled trying to keep his classmates calm as the gunfire faded, and then erupted again as Cruz fired a second volley through the window of the classroom door.

He also recalled seeing Schacter slumped over at his desk. “I saw blood forming under him. Not spasming, but like trying to take his final breaths,” Dworet told jurors. “At that moment, it started getting more real.”

Dworet was not asked about his brother, 17-year-old Nicholas Dworet, a star swimmer at the school. Nicholas was shot to death inside another classroom.

Jurors also heard from members of a Holocaust history class, where students had just about wrapped up class when Cruz unleashed a volley through the door window.

The bullet injuries to the students were widespread, jurors heard.

Isabel Chequer testified she was grazed twice, in the right foot and left arm. Daniela Menescal recalled feeling a sharp pain in her back as she tried to hide by a TV. “I looked down and saw my white pants were full of blood,” Menescal testified. “That’s when I realize it was probably not a drill.”

A ricocheted bullet hit Samantha Grady in the chest. Samantha Fuentes’ injuries were the most serious from the class. She suffered a gunshot wound to the left knee, and shrapnel sprayed across her arm and face.

Doctors performed at least three operations on her. Today, she still has shrapnel embedded in her face.

“I don’t have the range of motion, or stamina. I get chronic spasms and pains whenever the weather changes,” Fuentes told jurors. “I can really feel that.”