Florida, Parkland high-school massacre. The archbishop of Miami: “An act of senseless violence and horrifying evil”

(from New York) A nightmare; utter, horrifying evil. There are no words to describe the horrors experienced by over 3 thousand students who witnessed the killing of 17 schoolmates and rescued 15 left wounded in the latest mass shooting that targeted Parkland high-school in Florida They all fell under the merciless gunfire of a semiautomatic AR-15 assault rifle sold for less than 500 dollars, already used in the Las Vegas massacre last year and in Sutherland Springs church mass shooting in Texas. Now its charge of violence was discharged on Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school. The named suspect is Nikolas Cruz, 19, former student in the same school. According to the police the youth was obsessed with firearms. Reportedly, at 3 am he pulled the fire alarm to lure students out of classrooms and of the school building in order to gun them down. Senator Bill Nelson told journalists that after having pulled the alarm Cruz put on a gas mask and then threw smoke granades and started shooting while people walked through the foggy air.

After having carried out his criminal plan, Cruz concealed himself with the crowd fleeing the school but he was stopped by security officers who identified him as having been expelled from school for threatening, violent behaviour and had no right to be there. When the alarm bell went off, followed by the sound of gunshots, the teachers immediately closed their students inside the classrooms, some even inside the lockers in order to protect them from the homicidal fury of their former classmate, whose heinous violence took the life of the school’s athletics director (at present, the only identified victim).

County sheriff Scott Israel  said the first findings are “extremely upsetting” and called upon citizenry to pray “for this school, for the parents, for all those who lost their lives.” According to the sheriff 12 were slain inside the school, two other victims were shot outside the building and on a nearby street corner, and an additional two victims died at nearby hospitals.

And while Donald Trump said in a tweet that “no child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school”, once again the umpteenth mass shooting occurred where it never should have. There have been as many as 30 deadly mass shootings according to “Gun Violence” website. Melissa Falkowski, one of the teachers who saved her students by hiding them in a closet, as practiced during fire drills and shooting training, reiterated her disappointment to our government, “our country has failed us and failed our kids”, she said. It failed “to keep us safe. We did everything possible and yet, we didn’t save enough.” Dozens of students  shared their stories with parents and friends outside school: they said that messages were sent and received while hiding beneath school desks, and showed the whatsapps and the shocking videos that registered the gunshots, the horror, the screams, as well as promises of affection. Indeed, there was also a lot of affection.

The archbishop of Miami Thomas Wenski, voiced his “his “great sadness” upon learning of “the tragic shooting” and called upon the faithful to “pray for the deceased and wounded, for their families and loved ones, for our first responders …”. The bishops said the outrage is understandable “when innocent children are made victims of senseless violence.” But, at the same time he underlined the importance of “coming together as a community to support one another in this time of grief. With God’s help, we can remain strong and resolute to resist evil in all its manifestations.” Mons. Wenski prayed to God “to heal the broken hearted and comfort the sorrowing as we once again face as a nation another act of senseless violence and horrifying evil.”

This tragedy is all the more incomprehensible in the light of the fact that in 2016 Parkland had been declared the safest city in Florida, with only seven murders. From now on it will no longer be so.