NewsHillsborough County

Actions

Former Stoneman Douglas student among those at Tampa vigil on Parkland shooting one year anniversary

Posted at 10:52 PM, Feb 14, 2019
and last updated 2019-02-15 02:35:45-05

TAMPA, Fla. — One year ago on Valentine's Day, 17 people lost their lives in the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.

Students and parents gathered outside Tampa City Hall Thursday to honor the victims who lost their lives, lighting candles in their memory.

Susana Matta was a junior at the high school during the shooting last year, and has since relocated, now attending Sickles High School.

"This could happen again when it’s so preventable, it’s so heartbreaking because nobody else needs to go through this,” she said. "I live every single day going to school reliving that moment as I walk through the hallways.”

She remembers heartbroken parents rushing to the campus, not sure if their child survived.

"We all just went running from our classrooms and the multiple shots were fired. We all scattered for one second we thought it could be fireworks, it could be balloons… No one thought this is what it was,” she said.

March for our Lives Tampa vows to continue pushing for safer schools and stricter gun laws.

"We have to take all of this anger, all of this sadness and build it up inside us and use it as fuel for our fight because we need this, we need people out here,” Matta said.