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Wailin’ Jennys will bring their three-part harmonies to Misercordia. INSIDE
BERWICK’S JAYSON TERDIMAN FINISHES 10TH IN LUGE. PAGE B1
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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2018
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‘It’s catastrophic’ Former student kills 17 at Florida high school
Geisinger workforce expanding
More than 500 workers relocating to new building in Jenkins Twp. By DENISE AllABAugh Staff Writer
Victoria Olvera, a junior at the school, said Cruz was expelled last school year because he got into a fight with his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend. She said he had been abusive to his girlfriend. “I think everyone had in their minds if anybody was going to do it, it was going to be him,” she said. Dakota Mentcher, another junior, said he used to be friends with Cruz. But he cut off the friendship as Cruz’s behavior “started progressively getting a little more weird.” Cruz posted on Instagram about killing animals and threatened one of Mentcher’s friends, he said.
Geisinger Health System plans to relocate hundreds of employees to a new three-story office building in CenterPoint Commerce and Trade Park in Jenkins Twp. The health system announced We dnesday more than 500 support service employees from Luzerne and Lackawanna counties will move to the space in the 79,000-squarefoot office building at 300 Keystone Ave. by the end of the year or in early 2019. The relocation is occurring as Geisinger’s workforce in Northeast Pennsylvania continues to expand. With expansion at Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center in Plains Twp., the addition of Scranton’s Geisinger Community Medical Center and the Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, Geisinger employs more than 7,140 people in the northeast region. The health system also is recruiting more employees as it prepares to reopen the emergency department at Geisinger South WilkesBarre this summer and as Geisinger CMC brings back maternity services. Reopening the emergency department at Geisinger South Wilkes-Barre marks a $5 million investment to significantly expand emergency care, inpatient serv i c e s, p r iv a t e p a t i e n t rooms, expanded laboratory services and full-service radiology. In 2019, Geisinger CMC will debut a new $15 million maternity center as part of Geising er’s expanding Women and Children’s Institute. “We are proud of our continued investment in Northeast Pennsylvania to enhance customer service for our patients and health plan members,” Geisinger
Please see ATTACK, Page A5
Please see gEISINgEr, Page A5
aSSociated PreSS
By TErry SPENCEr AND KEllI KENNEDy aSSociated PreSS
PARKLAND, Fla. — A former student opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle at a Florida high school Wednesday, killing at least 17 people and sending hundreds of students fleeing into the streets in the nation’s deadliest school shooting since a gunman attacked an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. The shooter, who was equipped with a gas mask and smoke grenades, set off a fire alarm to draw students out of classrooms shortly before the day ended at one of the state’s largest schools, officials said. Authorities offered no
‘I think everyone had in their minds if anybody was going to do it, it was going to be him.’
behavior had caused others to end friendships with him, particularly after the fight that led to his expulsion. Frantic parents rushed to the school to find SWAT team members and ambulances surrounding the huge campus. Live television footage showed emergency workers who appeared to be treating the wounded on sidewalks. “It is a horrific situation,” said Robert Runcie, superintendent of the school district in Parkland, about an hour’s drive north of Miami. “It is a horrible day for us.” The suspect was taken into custody without a fight about an hour later in a residential neighborhood about a mile away. He had multiple magazines of ammuni-
VICTOrIA OlVErA
Marjory Stoneman douglas High School junior
immediate details on the 19-year-old suspect or any possible motive, except to say that he had been kicked out of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, which has about 3,000 students. Students who knew the shooter, identified as Nikolas Cruz, described a volatile teenager whose strange
tion, authorities said. “It’s catastrophic. There really are no words,” Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel told reporters. The attacker used the fire alarm “so the kids would come pouring out of the classrooms into the hall,” Sen. Bill Nelson told CNN. “And there the carnage began,” said Nelson, who said he was briefed by the FBI. The Florida Democrat said he did not know if the gunman used the smoke grenades, but he assumed that’s why he had a gas mask on. Most of the fatalities were inside the building, though some victims were found fatally shot outside, the sheriff said.
ADVE RTISE M E NT
lACKAWANNA COuNTy PrISON PrOBE
7 guards accused of sex abuse By JOSEPh KOhuT, TErrIE MOrgAN-BESECKEr, BOryS KrAWCZENIuK AND DAVID SINglETON Staff WriterS
SCRANTON — John Shnipes Jr. listened for the “click” of a female inmate’s cell door while she performed oral sex on him — a warning from his coworkers at Lackawanna County Prison that someone was coming. The woman thought she had to do what Shnipes, now a former correctional officer, wanted, she recently told a statewide investigative grand jury probing “systematic sexual abuse” at the jail. Giving in to guards’ sexual demands was
how you survived, she said of her numerous i n c a rc e r a tions from 1998 to 2008. STAff Sexual abuse and harassment of female inmates had become a “pervasive culture,” the grand jury wrote in a 28-page presentment recommending charges against Shnipes and six other guards in the jail, a document made public Wednesday after the arrests of all seven. The grand jury summarized testimony of 13 women who accused guards of coercing sex acts by using their positions to
“manipulate and dominate” them for more than a decade. Their testimony was often corroborated by statements to the grand jury from other witnesses. “Due to their status as inmates, the females were reluctant to report the abuse and harassment to anyone in authority,”thegrandjurywrote. “Fearful of repercussions or punishment, and simply wanting to survive, the females electedtoendurethesexuallyoppressive environment as it appeared tobethe‘statusquo’at LCPona day-to-daybasis.” The Citizens’ Voice does not identify victims of sexual assault. None of the victims
were named in grand jury paperwork. Aside from Shnipes, 42, of 115 Simpson St., Archbald, the accused guards are: George T. McHale, 50, of 513 Florin St., Scranton. Jeffrey T. Staff, 42, of 459 Wyoming Ave. Apt. 4, Wyoming. James J. Walsh, 51, of 209 Mosswood Road, Roaring Brook. Paul J. Voglino, 45, of 4 Rear Orchard St., Carbondale. Mark Johnson, 53, of 2213 Golden Ave., Scranton. George R. Efthimiou, 50, of 1121 Loomis Ave., Taylor. Please see ArrESTS, Page A11
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