Florida school shooting witness: I heard too many gunshots to count

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Wednesday, February 14, 2018
School shooting witness: I heard too many gunshots to count
A student who was inside Stoneman Douglas High School at the time of a shooting heard too many gunshots to count during the shooting spree.

PARKLAND, Fla. -- A student who was inside Stoneman Douglas High School at the time of a school shooting heard more gunshots than he could count.

"All of a sudden I heard, 'Boom, boom, boom!' and I heard screaming everywhere. We fell underneath my teacher's desk. The shooter was literally feet outside of my classroom," student Michael Katz told ABC News.

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Law enforcement vehicles arrive at a hotel where parents were instructed to pick up their children in Coral Springs, Fla., Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018.
AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee

When asked how many shots he heard, Katz said there were "too many to count." He believed they sounded like pistol or shotgun fire, not automatic weapon fire.

Despite the shooter's proximity to the classroom where Katz was taking cover, Katz did not hear the shooter - who he described as male - speak.

"I just heard screaming from people in shock, injured, maybe even the result of people dying," he said.

Katz said that he and the approximately 20 other people in his classroom were eventually evacuated to safety.

The school has distributed information about what to do during an active-shooter situation as recently as December, according to Katz.

"We didn't have time [to lock the door], but fortunately this is one of the teachers who strictly enforces the locked-door policy...designed to prevent an incident like this," Katz added.