A shooter will retrace the steps of the Parkland shooter, going floor by floor and firing live rounds through windows and hallways. Initially, only blank rounds were going to be used. Yet it was decided live rounds fired into ballistic traps would make for a more accurate representation of the event.
A communitywide notice has been issued and no citizens or members of the media, outside of those connected to the case, will be allowed on campus. Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, set to be demolished this month, has been treated like an active crime scene since the shooting in February 2018. The reenactor will encounter the same blood stains and bullet holes put there by the real shooter.
The civil case involves former Broward County school resource officer Scot Peterson. He refused to enter the school at the time of the shooting, saying he couldn’t tell where the shots came from and it was unsafe to burst in. He was cleared in criminal court in June of any wrongdoing, but a civil trial, led by families of the victims, is ongoing.
The plaintiffs in the case want a reenactment to prove that Mr. Peterson could, and should, have entered the school. The judge in the case, Broward County Circuit Judge Carol-Lisa Philips, signed off on the reenactment and ordered the plaintiffs to cover the cost. She has not ruled if recordings of the reenactment will be admissible in the trial.