One of the Florida school shooting survivors recently shared his harrowing experience of being mistaken for the shooter.
Lorenzo Prado, an 11th grader at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, detailed the events during a press conference on Wednesday, as reported by HuffPost.
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“I was in the sound booth inside the auditorium when the fire alarm rang. I decided I would stay behind because what could possibly go wrong? I then hear the banging on the doors of the auditorium, and I run downstairs to see a hundred people banging on the door. I quickly opened the doors to let the people in and see my coach running inside for safety,” Prado explained.
“I was scared, and I ran to the safest place possible, which was the sound booth again. I start to pace back and forth because I did not know what was going on ― and the people in the audience saw me. They saw me, and they panicked because I was matching the same description of Nikolas Cruz. I had the same clothes, same hair color, same facial structure somewhat. … And they reported me,” the teen continued.
Lorenzo Prado, who survived the Parkland school shooting, speaks at a press conference after meeting with state lawmakers: “What we must do now is enact change because that is what we do to things that fail: we change them” https://t.co/gXfNrLAAGf
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) February 21, 2018
“I was just hiding up there. I had no idea what was going on. Then the door started to rattle. At first, the only thought that came to my mind was,’I’m going to die, the shooter is going to kill me.’ But then S.W.A.T. comes in, and I thought they were here to rescue me. But then as I go down the stairs, I find out that I was wrong,” Prado added
“I found out that they thought it was me that killed the 17 people. I go down the stairs, they tell me to put my hands up. I, being the fool that I was, tried putting my phone back in my pocket. They demanded again, and I, not trying to be one of those news stories of someone dying wrongfully because they refused to put their hands up, I just dropped my phone at that moment and kept going,” he further explained.
“When I went out those doors, I had six S.W.A.T. members pointing their guns at me. I was tossed to the ground. I was unjustly cuffed and held at gunpoint for the degrading and depreciating action of the disturbed individual Nikolas Cruz,” Prado also said.
“I was then put in a corner with a policewoman guarding me. I knew any move I made would be the end of my life. Throughout the entire event, I only felt two things: I felt fear, as I did not know my future. I did not know if i was going to be let go. I did not know where the terrorist was. … A the second thing was guilt,” the teen concluded.
As has been widely reported, on Valentine’s Day 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz walked into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and opened fire, killing 17 students and teachers. Cruz was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder, one for each of the people he confessed to killing.
