Two days before the tragic school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Parkland, Florida was listed as one of the safest cities in the country.
According to a newly released report by the national online database Neighborhood Scout, the Northwest Broward city saw only 19 violent crimes per year, a crime rate of 0.6 per 1,000 residents.
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According to the Miami Herald, that is statistically safer than 85% of cities in the entire country. The “Safest Cities” list compares the safety of cities with a population of 25,000 or more, based on the number of crimes reported.
The city made headlines for a heartbreaking reason Wednesday after suspected shooter Nikolas Cruz, 19, opened fire at the high school, killing 17 people.
Cruz reportedly began shooting around 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, minutes before the school day’s dismissal. Using an AR-15 rifle, Cruz reportedly pulled the school’s fire alarm then opened fire as kids began filing out of classrooms.
“We all thought it was a fire drill because we had one previously today,” a student told Fox 6. “And we thought it was, so no one was that nervous, but then word started going around that it was shots and not just, like, something else, everyone just started running towards the canal.”
One student managed to live tweet the shooting, while others posted videos to social media from inside classrooms. Police and SWAT arrived on the scene and helped many of the students out of the building, while others quickly fled on foot without being seen by Cruz, who was detained outside the school.
Cristina Vega, a student, told 7 News Miami that returning to the school will be extremely difficult. “I don’t want to come back to this school,” she said. “I can’t go up the stairs because up the stairs there was just trails of blood. Our teacher, right there in the corner.You just see the bullet and the blood on the wall.”
After the horrific shooting, the Broward County Public School district announced closures for the rest of the week.
“Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School will be closed Thursday, February 15 and Friday, February 16, 2018, (for the rest of this week),” the school district tweeted Wednesday evening. “All school activities are also cancelled.”
