A survivor of the deadly shooting in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and the daughter of Russian UFC heavyweight Alexey Oleynik, has shared her traumatic experience with RT.
Polina Oleynik, the fighter’s eldest daughter, was at the school when the suspect, identified as a former student 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, busted into the school, killing 15 people and injuring at least a dozen more. Two other victims later succumbed to their wounds in hospital.
While Polina was not in the building targeted by the attacker, she got caught up in school alongside other students when a fire alarm went off shortly after her class ended. It is believed that the alarm was triggered by the gunman to draw people into the open in order to inflict as much damage as possible.
The girl did not hear the shots, and like many others, she thought it was a “fake alarm.” However, it promptly became clear to her that “someone already got killed” and it was actually “serious,” Polina told RT. The students were told to barricade themselves in classrooms, stay on the floor and not to use their phones, according to the girl.
Polina did not know the attacker personally since he had been already expelled from the school before she was enrolled. None of her close friends were killed or injured during the massacre, but the experience was still traumatizing to her.
“I feel really sad and kind of at loss, cause like I don’t know what to do or how to react to this all stuff. It just never happened to me. I just don’t think that going to school is going to be like the same after what happened,” Polina said.