The Jewish community of Parkland, Florida, rallied together Wednesday after learning some of the victims of the gruesome shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School were Jewish.
At least 17 people were killed when 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, who had been expelled, opened fire at the school. Fourteen others were wounded, five of whom suffering life-threatening injuries, hospital officials said.
At least one of those killed is Jewish, identified as Jaime Guttenberg by a local ABC News affiliate. Four other Jewish students were wounded and one remains unaccounted for.
Television footage showed students running out of the building as dozens of police and emergency services personnel swarmed the area. Police apprehended Cruz shortly after without a struggle, authorities said.
Rabbi Bradd Boxman, who heads Congregation Kol Tikvah, a Reform synagogue in Boca Raton, said that three of the four wounded Jewish students were from his community.
"A huge number [of our congregation] go to that school," Boxman said.
His synagogue opened its doors Wednesday evening for community mental health care professionals to meet students from the high school and provide preliminary trauma treatment.
"Within our own community we have many mental health professionals to rely on," Boxman explained, so many were quick to come help the students.
"It was a place to come for refuge," Boxman said of his synagogue.
"We just pulled together as a community [with] the surrounding congregations, to be there for our kids and families, getting the kids to have an opportunity to speak to their experience and begin the healing process in the community," said Geri Pomerantz, president of Kol Tikvah.
Rabbi Jonathan Kaplan, from the nearby Temple Beth Chai community, spent the evening at the local Marriott Hotel counseling parents who had gathered there to reunite with children who escaped the massacre. He said one child was located safe and sound from his congregation, while another is still missing.
"It's chaos here and devastation," Kaplan told local news. "Everyone is just waiting and praying. No words can describe what happened here."
