Florida school shooting survivor Aalayah Eastmond recalled using her dead classmate’s body for protection during a speech Saturday in Harlem.
“When I saw my classmate slumped over, that’s when I realized, ‘OK it’s real,’ and I told myself that I need to look like I’m dead,” the 16-year-old Stoneman Douglas High School junior said.
“So the classmate in front of me, Nicholas Dworet, he fell over and when he fell over I just fell over with him and then I went underneath his body and I laid there.”
Dworet, one of 17 peopl alleged shooter Nikolas Cruz killed Feb. 14, saved Eastmond’s life, she said.
Eastmond joined Rev. Al Sharpton at his National Action Network to announce a June 2 youth march and rally against gun violence, starting at Trump International Tower in Columbus Circle and moving toward Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, the president’s longtime residence.
Originally from Brooklyn, Eastmond’s dad and brothers still live in the city and she lost an uncle to gun violence here.
Town halls were also organized across the city and nation on Saturday to discuss gun violence.
Additional reporting by Gwynne Hogan, Ben Feuerherd, and Nick Fugallo