PARKLAND, Fla. — The sound of gunfire still ringing in his ears after his mad half-mile sprint, Jack Ciaramello was standing with friends in a grocery store parking lot when a sheriff’s deputy approached. He asked the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High senior if he knew a former student named Nikolas Cruz.
Of course he did: Cruz had been one of Ciaramello’s cadets in the school’s tight-knit Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps.
Ciaramello’s head reeled. He’d escaped, but his 14-year-old brother— also a cadet — was still in the school. Why was the deputy asking about Cruz?
“And then it clicked,” the 17-year-old senior said.
Officials have accused Cruz in the Wednesday shooting rampage that left 17 students and staff dead. In the days since, reports of Cruz’s violent, threatening behavior have flooded traditional and social media. Some students said they weren’t surprised, but Ciaramello was. He knew Cruz was troubled and had a thing about guns. But he’d never suspected Cruz was capable of this kind of savagery.
As Cruz’s leader in Company E — “Echo Company” — Ciaramello tried to instill discipline, pride and a sense of camaraderie in Cruz.
The 350 or so cadets at Douglas are issued uniforms and T-shirts — with the motto “WHATEVER IT TAKES” over the heart — and they’re required to show the colors as much as possible, or risk demerits. But last year, Cruz stopped wearing his JROTC gear. As leader, Ciaramello took notice.
