Students from the Florida high school mass shooting continued to put the pressure on lawmakers Wednesday taking turns speaking on their experiences and the changes they want to see at a rally in the state’s capital.
“My case was different than all the others because on that day I was a suspected school shooter,” Lorenzo Prado, a student at Majory Stoneman Douglas, said at the students’ rally in Tallahassee, Florida.
Mr. Prado said he was originally suspected of being the gunman last week and was handcuffed by the SWAT team who entered the school. He said he was hiding in the audio booth in the school’s auditorium for protection, but since his features matched some of the suspect, authorities mistook him for the suspect.
He said when the SWAT team entered the booth he thought it was the shooter.
“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 the SWAT comes in and I thought they were here to rescue me,” Mr. Prado said.
“I found out they thought it was me that killed the 17 people,” he added.
The shooter, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, was a former student of the school who had a propensity to violence, according to disturbing social media posts. He used an AR-15 to carry out the mass shooting.
The large crowd in front of the Florida statehouse included 100 students from Stoneman Douglas and others who joined in solidarity. The students from the Parkland shooting stayed in the Tallahassee Civic Center Tuesday before marching to the statehouse Wednesday afternoon.
“I’m prepared to drop out of school. I’m prepared to not worry about anything else besides this. Because change might not come today, it might not come tomorrow, it might not even come March 24 when we march for our lives down in Washington, but it’s going to happen. It’s going to happen before my lifetime,” Alfonso Calderon, another Stoneman Douglas student said.
Their trip also includes meetings with lawmakers and a town hall tonight hosted by CNN, where Florida Sens. Marco Rubio, a Republican, and Bill Nelson, a Democrat, are set to speak, along with a spokesperson from the National Rifle Association.
A group of young people in Washington also joined on the day’s rally standing outside the White House to pressure action from President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. Both were invited to the town hall to speak with students, but declined, according to CNN.
Thousands of students from Maryland also rallied on Capitol Hill Wednesday with similar demands. A nationwide school walkout is slated for March 14 with another demonstration “March for Our Lives” is planned in Washington on March 24.
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