A groan, a crunch of concrete, and dust. Demolition begins on the Parkland classroom building where 17 died in a massacre

PARKLAND — With a groan, the classroom building where 17 people died in the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas mass shooting began to come down Friday morning in chunks of metal, concrete, and dust.

Two white tents stationed about 100 yards away protected victims’ family members from the sun during the scheduled demolition, while a yellow excavator clawed away at the building’s corner. Some filmed it on their phones. Some cried. Outside the fence, former students, teachers and neighbors came to watch, stopping by on bicycles, sitting in lawn chairs.

For years they had known this day would come, but still could not have predicted how it would feel.

“To me, whether the building’s here or whether it’s not, I will always remember this space,” Max Schachter, whose 14-year-old son, Alex, was killed in the building, told reporters after the initial demolition began Friday. “I will always remember the horrific images in my head that I saw walking through that building, knowing the pain that Alex was going through when he was shot and murdered by the Parkland school shooter. So there’s no closure for me.”