Three people with Long Island ties were among the 17 allegedly killed by a teenage gunman at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. on Valentine’s Day.
Aaron Feis, a 37-year-old West Islip native, was a junior varsity football coach who reportedly shielded students with his body. Scott Biegel, a 35-year-old Dix Hills native, was a teacher who died while trying to protect students from the gunfire. And the parents of 17-year-old Meadow Pollack, whose funeral was Friday, were originally from Oceanside.
“When Aaron Feis died … he did it protecting others, guarantee that because that’s who Aaron Feis was,” Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel told reporters. “He was one of the greatest people I knew. He was a phenomenal man.”
The alleged gunman, 19-year-old Nicholas Cruz, an orphan who’s adopted mother was an LI native, was arrested shortly after the massacre and charged with 17 counts of murder.
Biegel died while letting students in his classroom to escape the gunfire, survivors told Good Morning America.
Pollack was a senior who had been accepted into Lynn University in Boca Raton. Her parents were Oceanside High School graduates.
