JUSTICE
Parkland, Florida | 2022
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The Parkland school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida drew the attention of the world and sparked a national youth movement against gun violence.
When the gunman who killed 17 pleaded guilty, it was just the beginning for the families of those killed.
Nearly five years later, they are wrestling with what it means to find justice for such a heinous crime.
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Reported, produced, filmed, and edited by Alexandra Ostasiewicz on assignment for the BBC News.
Winner of the 2023 First Place Award for Feature Story in digital storytelling from the White House News Photographers Association.
This video also ran as a package on BBC World News when the news of the sentence broke. Interviews were filmed in the weeks before the result, and the final video was finished and published as the result was announced.
Reporting and photography was also featured in a co-bylined text story following the verdict with writer Sam Cabral.
Parkland shooting verdict: 'I'm as stunned as the day Luke was killed’
The court was packed, but you could have heard a pin drop in the moments leading up to a verdict in the sentencing trial of the Parkland school gunman.
+ Click to read the full story on the BBC News site.
‘Hug your kids, because you never know.’
Tony Montalto reminds families ‘lucky enough to still have their children’ to value them more. He lost one child, his daughter Gina, in the Parkland school shooting.
‘I still wait for him.’
Debbi Hixon describes what the loss of her husband and soul mate has meant for her as she continues grieving him nearly five years after he was killed.
‘That was the last time I saw my son alive’
Gena Hoyer describes dropping her son off at school the day he was killed in the Parkland school shooting.
‘In the old west, it never ended with the bad guy getting life in prison.’
Tom Hoyer reflects on the controversy and the history of the death penalty in the United States. After much deliberation, he has come to favour the death penalty for the gunman who killed his son.
Contributed written and video posts for the BBC News live page following the trial as the verdict was announced. Two written posts below.
As it happened: Verdict reached in Parkland gunman's death penalty trial
+ Click to read the live page on the BBC News site.
A harrowing trial for victims’ families
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For those with loved ones killed in the attack, the sentencing trial has been a chapter they are eager to see closed.
“It's very difficult to be in the same room with that individual,” said Tony Montalto, whose 14-year-old daughter Gina was killed in the school shooting.
On a recent visit to his home in Parkland, Florida, Tony told me how difficult it was hearing for the first time exactly what Gina experienced in her final moments.
“It was bad enough losing our daughter. My wife, she wanted to know all the details I did not,” Tony said.
Another father, Tom Hoyer, who lost his 15-year-old son Luke in the attack told me, “It's everything you’d imagine, having to listen to somebody talk about your son's death in a very clinical way.”
Tom explained to me that an added stress for families in the courtroom has been trying not to show emotion – even during the most gruesome accounts – to avoid any actions that could bias the jury and provide grounds for a mistrial.
He described the experience as “frustrating and exhausting.” Saying that when he leaves court his whole body is tense.
“Clenching our teeth, clenching our shoulders. I spend a lot of time gripping the edge of the benches that we’re sitting on,” he said.
Despite the difficulty, families like the Montaltos and the Hoyers insist on coming to represent their loved ones.
As Tom’s wife Gena Hoyer told me, “As a mom, I brought him into this world, I have to see it to the end.”
‘No notoriety’ – The case for not naming mass shooters
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Debbi Hixon’s husband Chris Hixon was killed in the Parkland school shooting. The pair met when they were just 21 and 20 respectively. As Debbi describes it, “There hasn’t been any aspect of my adult life he wasn’t a part of.”
For Debbi, and many of the families whose loved ones were killed in the tragedy, it is important to keep the focus on Chris and those killed in the attack – not the man who committed the crime.
“When we continue to let them become infamous,” Debbi said of mass shooters, “And we say their names, then we're grooming that next person.”
The Parkland gunman has himself said that he idolised school shooters and that their actions inspired his own act of mass killing.
For Debbi, it is important to break this cycle.
She understands the difficulty. After a tragedy, “everyone wants to know why. Right? I mean, that's initially the first question any of us asked,” Debbi told me.
But she insists that simple actions like avoiding use of the gunman’s name and photograph can make a difference.
“It should be about the lives that were lost,” she said, and how to change society and prevent future attacks.
“It's a slow process.” She admitted. But one she feels is worth fighting for.
From Florida to Washington DC to Texas, gun violence has become an inescapable reality across the United States. These are two additional stories on the growing crisis in America co-produced and filmed by Alexandra Ostasiewicz.
Why are these Americans turning in (some of) their guns?
In the United States there are more guns than people. On a Saturday morning in July of 2022, hundreds queued up in Houston, Texas, to turn their guns over to police.
While more than 800 guns were collected in the effort by local law enforcement to make the city safer - it was a mere fraction. In a culture where gun ownership is the norm. Many of the gun owners who gave up their firearms still have more at home.
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Produced, filmed and edited by Alexandra Ostasiewicz and Angélica M Casas on assignment for the BBC News.
America’s gun violence epidemic
“I won’t let my daughter play outside because of the shootings.”
Nakia lives a few miles from the White House in a community ravaged by gun violence. It’s getting worse in her neighborhood and in many cities across the US.
Is it time for a new approach to tackle the crisis?
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