Florida shooting: Community looks to help families of victims any way they can as first funerals are held

'This was a little something I could do today,' says one local resident as he joins long queues to give blood

Mourners place flowers on a memorial for the victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in a park in Parklan (AFP/Getty)

As the family members of the victims of the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in Parkland, Florida, begin to bury their children and the adults who died trying to protect them, local residents are looking to help all those affected in any way they can.

In a ritual that has become grimly familiar over the last couple of years, long queues are forming at blood drives around the area, with people waiting for hours to give a piece of themselves to help the more than dozen injured in the one of the worst school shootings on record in the US.

At a blood drive at Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale, about 30 miles south of the Parkland campus where 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz is accused of killing 17 people, Devon Walsh, 30, an alumnus of Stoneman, said she was shocked to see her former school amid such carnage.

Ms Walsh, a local government worker, said the images from Parkdale haunt her, and make her worry whether her three-year old son will be safe when she sends him to school.

“I don’t have a whole lot of money but I can give this,” she said.

Dana Kibizova, 31, drove all the way from Miami on her day off from her job as a receptionist to donate her blood. She said she couldn’t imagine the horror the parents are going through. “This is the least I could do for the victims of this horrible incident,” she said.

Ms Kibizova, like many of the others at the blood drive, said she had been waiting for at least an hour but was undeterred. “I’ll wait as long as I have to,” she said.

The family of Alyssa Alhadeff, 14, whose mother has made a number of angry television appearance calling on US President Donald Trump to address the epidemic of school violence, have held a private funeral for Alyssa outside Parkland, the first for a victim.

On a normal Friday, Alyssa might have been counting down the 40 minutes or so left until the final bell of the week announced the weekend at 2.40 pm – a weekend that promises unusually warm weather for the time of year.

Instead, two black limousines carrying the family crept out of the graveyard in North Lauderdale, past county police and media at the entrance. Behind them, a light breeze rustled trees on the grounds in what was otherwise a quiet day.

Eighteen-year-old Meadow Pollack was next, with both she and Alyssa Alhadeff to be buried in the Garden of Aaron at the Star of David Memorial Gardens in North Lauderdale.

Brian Gately, a friend of the Alhadeff family, said he attended Alyssa’s funeral and that the synagogue was so packed he had to stand in the rear.

“There was just really a lot of sadness in there,” Mr Gately, a 51-year-old financial adviser who lives in Parkland, said. The burial became more emotional, he added: “People were yelling, ‘No, no.’ Kids were yelling, ‘No, no.’”

The passion displayed by Alyssa’s mother Lori Alhadeff in calling for action has been backed by a number of students calling for gun control laws – which Florida Senator Bill Nelson said had inspired him. The Florida Democrat said the state Legislature also bears responsibility, since it could outlaw assault weapons in the state.

Speaking outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas school, Mr Nelson said: “These kids are just terrific. The fact that they are speaking up as boldly as they are, maybe that’s the turning point. You haven’t heard students speak up one after another after another after witnessing such carnage and speaking out with such conviction.”

The issue of gun laws has been a constant conversation in the local community, with Casey Rotondi, 34, a gym owner in the area, saying it was part of the reason she was attending the Broward Center blood drive.

“I’m O-negative, and I know that’s in high demand,” she said. “I can’t change gun laws, but I can do this.”

Ms Rotondi said she waited for at least three hours on Thursday to donate, and had waited another 45 minutes on Friday but had to get back to work. She said she would be back later to give it another shot.

Beyond Florida, a GoFundMe fundraising campaign calling for money to help the victims of the shooting and their families has already reached $1m, in little more than a day.

Meanwhile President Donald Trump, who addressed the shooting in a White House speech on Thursday that focused on mental health and school safety but steered clear of gun policy, said he would be visiting the state.

“I will be leaving for Florida today to meet with some of the bravest people on earth – but people whose lives have been totally shattered,” Mr Trump said on Twitter on Friday morning. He had previously planned to spend the weekend at a resort he owns in Palm Beach, about 40 miles (64 km) north of Parkland.

It also emerged on Friday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) received a tip last month that the suspect in the Florida school shooting had a “desire to kill” and access to guns and could be plotting an attack, but agents failed to investigate. A person who was close to Nikolas Cruz called the FBI’s tip line on 5 January and provided information about Cruz’s weapons and his erratic behaviour, including his disturbing social media posts.

In a statement, the FBI acknowledged that the tip should have been shared with the FBI’s Miami office and investigated, but it was not. The FBI had previously said it had investigated another a tip about a YouTube comment posted last year that read: “I'm going to be a professional school shooter.”

The FBI investigated the remark – posted by a “Nikolas Cruz” – but did not determine who had made it.

Outside of the investigation, local residents are concentrating on rebuilding their community. Steve Sloan, 54, a marketing professional, said his sons went to a rival high school and that compelled him to visit the blood drive.

“My heart just – I’m so torn by this that I wanted to do something,” he said.

“This was a little something I could do today,” he added. “Then I’ll figure out what I’ll do tomorrow, and the next day.”