Swimmer Among 17 Victims of Florida High School Shooting

Among the 17 killed in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on Wednesday was a member of the school’s swim team, and last week celebrated his commitment to continue swimming at the University of Indianapolis in a signing ceremony.

Nick Dworet, a senior, was killed when a former student opened fire at the school on Wednesday, his coach at TS Aquatics confirmed to IndyStar. Tweets went out on social media late Wednesday evening that he was still missing well after the incident at the school had concluded and the shooter had been apprehended. Early Thursday morning, reports began to circulate among family and friends that confirmed that he did not survive.

“I’m telling you from the bottom of my heart, he just took his life in his hands and he chiseled and molded his life,” said Andre Bailey, coach of TS Aquatics. “This kid went from being listless and going through the motions to planning ahead and organizing his life.”

“This is a kid who went from middle of the pack last year to to being just lights out,” Bailey said. “He helped put our program on the map.”

Dworet was a team captain, and placed 5th at the Florida 4A State Championship meet in November in the 100 free.

One family friend, who gave permission to use his words but asked not to be named, posted on Facebook that “Nick was a great Kid. A long term teammate of our children and an all around great kid from a great family…Our son always looked up to Nick at Coral Springs Swim Club and also TS Aquatics Swim Club.”

For further developments about the shooting and more details about the investigation, please refer to CNN’s live-updated report here.

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#Swimmer
6 years ago

This is heart breaking! Praying for all of the people involved in the shooting.

Tamara K Jacobson
6 years ago

What a devastating loss. May his memory be a blessing to his family and his team.

catlo
6 years ago

Prayers to the victims.

Liberty university has conceal carry for students who want to carry guns in campus. Don’t know if it makes the school safer or not but I heard it,s one of the top 10 safest universities in the USA.
BYU Idaho is the safest university in the nation. i dont think they have conceal carry.Christian universities kind of dominate the list of safest colleges and universities.

With all the shootings going on. It hard to know which route to go on guns.

sven
Reply to  catlo
6 years ago

Shootings happen because it is way too easy to acquire guns.

It’s really not that hard to know which route to go on guns.

mikeh
Reply to  sven
6 years ago

Shootings happen because people are evil. It was far, far easier to acquire a gun in this country 100 years ago, yet there were fewer mass shootings. The difference is the people.

Brad Flood
Reply to  mikeh
6 years ago

Shootings happen because “evil people” (read “evil people” as – mentally unhealthy individuals) have EASY access to weapons of WAR (whose only purpose is to kill as many individuals as possible, in the shortest period of time possible) that have no need to be in a civilian’s home or in public.

SVIRD
Reply to  mikeh
6 years ago

And said people have easy access to guns. Don’t sidestep the issue.

Snarky
Reply to  mikeh
6 years ago

So Americans are more evil than the rest of the world? Stop making excuses for gun manufacturers!

Sandy
Reply to  mikeh
6 years ago

I totally agree. I was laid up for over a year with multiple injuries and didn’t go out much. When I was able to venture out, I was shocked at the level of hostility. For me, it seemed that things had drastically gotten worse. So many angry drivers and just rude people. I feel that society needs to get to the root of the problem.

Snarky
Reply to  catlo
6 years ago

So God wants us to carry guns? That’s about inapposite to Christianity as you can get! The NRA does not represent gun owners. It represents gun manufacturers who make billions each year selling weapons and pays politicians millions to make sure that laws will never be passed to hold gun manufacturers liable. It took years of legal actions in multiple states to finally penetrate Remington, who lied about the safety of the Remington 700 rifle that discharges randomly and has been responsible for hundreds of deaths. Remington filed for bankruptcy. The NRA and the politicians in their back pocket have blood on their hands.

S Wass
6 years ago

Truly upset at the loss of such young lives again. America you have a duty to protect your kids, get on with it, the world is watching, RIP Nicholas

Steve Nolan
6 years ago

Oddly enough, I was ready to get all huffy if people felt worse because this victim happened to do a thing that we like. But it happened to me, just reading about him. But I think it might be equally affecting to read about any of the victims, anyone at random. The more we humanize them, the more we feel for them. The more we might want to actually do something to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

Alyssa Alhadeff played soccer. Aaron Feis was a football coach. Gina Montalto and Jaime Guttenberg worked with an outreach group for children and young people with special needs.

Steve Nolan
Reply to  Steve Nolan
6 years ago

And because this is a thing that happens all the time in this country, there’s one I can remember more vividly than others, Catherine Hubbard from Sandy Hook. (Link.)

“Catherine Hubbard used to chase butterflies, trying to catch them before they flew away. But even as a small child, she understood her relationship with all living things. Catherine decided she would stop chasing butterflies and just sit still, allowing them to come to her. She whispered to each one when they arrived “tell your friends that I am kind”, so more would pay her a visit.”

She was six years old.

Just Swim
6 years ago

You know, swimswam is a site were us non-amreicans that are part of the world’s swimming community, and swim fans, are exposed in a major way to american swim news and culture.
We are all deeply deeply sorry for the victims (and their families) of this recent shooting, but we see these sorts of shootings becoming almost weekly occurences in america.
I’m from Israel. In the volatile middle east, where military service is compulsory for both men and women.
During the military service we ALL fire guns. We ALL know how to use a firearm.
But after the military service – no more guns!! A very small percentage of Israeli civilians own firearms and getting a… Read more »

Brad Flood
Reply to  Just Swim
6 years ago

“…but we see these sorts of shootings becoming almost weekly occurences in america”

It was just reported that since January 1, 2018 there has been a “school shooting” on USA soil every 60 hours!!!

These are JUST shootings involving schools/students, not coupled with terrorist attacks or other acts of violence and shooting…..JUST SCHOOL SHOOTINGS…..IN AMERICA, THERE IS ONE (1) SCHOOL SHOOTING EVERY 60 HOURS!!! Let that sink in……………………….

BKP
Reply to  Brad Flood
6 years ago

“1 every 60 hours” I know for a fact that is not true. Last I checked this was the 3rd or 4th this year, which is 3 or 4 too many, but it does no good to spread around false information like this.

Sounds like an Everytown statistic…no bias there

How about we start talking solutions that could actually work that don’t violate our constitutional rights. I saw that someone already mentioned our broken health care / mental health care system which is a start. How about also providing better security at our schools…hire retired police or military vets. I bet there are plenty out there that would be more than willing to protect our kids.

We can keep banging… Read more »

Swimmer
Reply to  Braden Keith
6 years ago

How much worse would the statistics be if we didn’t count weekends?

math
Reply to  Swimmer
6 years ago

that’s about 1 every 41 hours. such a scary fact

BKP
Reply to  Braden Keith
6 years ago

My source may have been referring to mass shootings, I don’t know, but still proves my point that we have to be intellectually honest about the facts. I did a quick search and found that one of the 8 you mentioned was an incident were a gun was accidentally discharged…no intent. Obviously still a problem with kids bringing the guns to school, but we need to look at the data relevant to the actual crimes committed.

You also need to look at the data on the other side. The most recent comprehensive research done on guns to prevent crime that I am aware of was the CDC’s study back in 2013. They found that there were 500k to 3 million… Read more »

Snarky
Reply to  BKP
6 years ago

Stop making excuses. If you think your logic makes sense go talk to the parents of the children killed in this slaughter!

Steve Nolan
Reply to  BKP
6 years ago

“The Broward County Sheriff said there was an armed officer on the school campus, but never encountered the gunman.”

You’re on the wrong side of this issue. And worried about the wrong freedoms. Think about how free you are the next time you get scanned at the airport. Or hell, a lot of HS kids have to go through metal detectors when they enter schools. (We’ve disproportionately put them in majority minority schools though, because of course we do.) That’s a real loss of freedom. Hell, I came across a negative Yelp review of a movie theater because they didn’t search bags. Freedom!

Brad Flood
Reply to  BKP
6 years ago

Not even sure why I’m posting this, but:

– 18 verifiable reported school shootings (any time a firearm has been discharged on, or in close proximity of, a school property) in the USA since January 1, 2018 source – https://everytownresearch.org/school-shootings/#5955 (click on 2018 for this year’s FACTS)

– 45 days (January 1 – February 14) = 1080 hours

1080/18 = 60/hour – not sure how “this is not true”??????

Blindly discrediting a source (w/ bias or not…LOL), without proof or facts to back up the discredit, does nothing to invalidate simple MATH. Simply not liking a source (whether biased or not…LOL), and what it has to offer, does not invalidate the… Read more »

BKP
Reply to  Brad Flood
6 years ago

Jeesh, well I went and broke my own rule commenting on topics like this on a swimming forum…again.
There’s just too much info out there too put it all together in a short comment. Instead of ad hominem attacks I really recommend you research the argument from the other side to see the entire picture. I was on your side over 15 years ago but then I really dug in and ultimately had to change my mind, based on what I found.

Moreover the defense arguments I’ve been presenting have nothing to do with the purpose of 2A…

Would be happy to talk about this offline… sorry if I offended

kgman
Reply to  BKP
6 years ago

“We surely didn’t have this problem of school shootings for the better part of the last century” Definitely jumped in the nineties, but I wouldn’t call over one shooting a month during the first half of the century not a problem.
During the first decade of the 20th century there were 15 (1903 (2 shootings), 04 (3), 05 (2), 07 (2), 08 (2), 09 (4).
During the 1910s there were 19
During the 1920s there were 10
During the 1930s there were 9
During the 1940s there were 8
During the 1950s there were 17
During the 1960s there were 18
During the 1970s there were 30
During the 1980s there were 39
During the 1990s there were 62

BKP
Reply to  kgman
6 years ago

OK, clearly a big increase toward the end of the century. An argument for moral decay in our society? I would say probably so, but I haven’t spent a lot of time researching that side of the argument.

But back to the shootings… what’s the other side of the argument? How many violent crimes or shootings were prevented or even stopped by someone with a gun?

Sorry for the snark, that data obviously be will be really hard to find. It’s far easier to gather data “after the fact” that works well for those promoting gun control. One needs to apply logic in the argument to see the big picture…

meeeeee
Reply to  kgman
6 years ago

do you think guns were more or less pervasive in society in the early 20th century. If you answer ‘less’ then you are wrong. Since 1973 the % of individuals and households with guns has dropped from about 50% to about 32% (http://www.norc.org/PDFs/GSS%20Reports/GSS_Trends%20in%20Gun%20Ownership_US_1972-2014.pdf). In 1900 there were 43 million people with guns of a population of 76 million. That is about 57%. I am one to not think the issue is guns. It is the people who get the guns. There are significant warning signs that need to be paid attention to. This guy almost had a red light flashing on his head. And the authorities knew he made threats and knew… Read more »

Snarky
Reply to  BKP
6 years ago

“We can’t keep banging that gun control drum”? Why not? Because all those thoughts and prayers are working so well? Congress has made guns easier and easier to get since 2004. Why? Because the NRA pays tens of millions to pay off our Congress. Let that sink in when you send more thoughts and prayers.

tammy touchpad error
Reply to  Brad Flood
6 years ago

We should all boycott schools. If enough did it, something would happen. Parents would need to think a little more long term than “College Degree” for as long as it takes for concrete change to occur. What kind of a society is this where this is normal and school is not a safe place for children? Things are so twisted right now. For no reason should we be at this state.

This is the result of greed and capitalism. The pressure and confusion of an unfair society makes some people crazy enough to shoot up a school, and makes others crazy enough to continue sending their kids to schools.

We are an extremely advanced civilization. We have the… Read more »

Snarky
6 years ago

I’m tired of thoughts and prayers after preventable acts of violence like this. When is Congress going to do something? When is common sense going to prevail over the insanity? How many young people have to be killed by weapons of war before we say no more? How many more swimmers need to be among the tragically killed for our community to care enough to demand change? Nicholas Dworet was robbed of a college swimming career, a loving family, friends, and a future because of Congress’s inaction. Stop the excuses! Shame Shame Shame.

Steve Nolan
Reply to  Snarky
6 years ago

I got really steely and disheartened after Sandy Hook. I was home that day, watched coverage the whole time. The worst thing I heard to come out of it, was that a large percentage of victims there didn’t even make it into ambulances because of how destroyed their bodies were. Literal children, six and seven years old.

We didn’t do anything then, odds are we won’t do anything in the future. But goddammit I hope we hit a tipping point soon. I think the videos coming out from this one might help. This is the first one I can remember that had literal social media posts from inside the school as it was happening. They’re horrific. I’m hoping they… Read more »

swimmermama
Reply to  Steve Nolan
6 years ago

Thank you for so eloquently stating exactly what I was thinking.

Brad Flood
Reply to  Steve Nolan
6 years ago

Steve, I too share your frustration and hopes for some sort of ACTION from our elected officials!

Unfortunately, your comment of this being the first one with live-time social media accounts of the tragedy, I believe, is not correct. Even more disheartening is when I recall the first time we had such “real-time” social media. I believe there were real-time social media videos released after the “first” of these unnecessary tragedies, Columbine, in 1999 < I want to make those numbers BOLD and 5 times LARGER than anything else here, because that was 19 YEARS AGO!!!

I'm from CT and have twin grandchildren that attend Newtown schools (they were pre-school when the shooting happened, Thank GOD) and cannot fathom how… Read more »

Steve Nolan
Reply to  Brad Flood
6 years ago

I don’t remember seeing things like this before (warning, graphic): https://mobile.twitter.com/TheDJLegacy/status/963916390624350209

While the Columbine stuff was mostly just kids running out of the school, helicopter shots. I for sure could be wrong, though.

And the legislation passed after Newtown *weakened* gun control. It’s very depressing.

Sum Ting Wong
Reply to  Brad Flood
6 years ago

Connecticut did impose restrictions after Sandy Hook but the fact is the state was built on the Firearms industry . Only 9 days prior to Sandy Hook Connectucut was offering a NC company a $1 ,000,000 low cost loan to move to CT. The industry as of 2013 was pouring $130 ,000,000 yearly unto state coffers.

After 2014 several companies have moved some production out to AL, NC , SC but the HQ & business aspects are still largely in CT . These have been a mainstay since 1840 supplying 47% of armaments to the Union . Then Colt won the west , with its guns killing off all native resistance & the buffalo population to starve the rest out… Read more »

tammy touchpad error
Reply to  Steve Nolan
6 years ago

I can’t bring myself to watch footage yet, cause I’ll break down hard right now, but I think we should all be forced to… It may actually bring about change if we all understand the severity of the situation. It’s too easy to ignore it still.

Jason
Reply to  Snarky
6 years ago

Because some members of Congress won’t get their pockets lined by the NRA though. those members love money more then protecting others. Every country has good people. Every country has bad people. Only difference is a lot easier in US to get guns. That’s why our total gun deaths per year is so much more then other countries.

Some people talk about the 2nd amendment and how they have to protect it. There is nothing to protect. It’s not going anywhere. 2/3 of congress has to vote for a constitutional amendment and then 3/4 of states have to vote on it. No way 75 percent of people are going to say abolish the 2nd amendment. Easily can have smart… Read more »

Kaez
6 years ago

Saw this on twitter and was absolutely heartbroken. It takes this whole thing to another level when someone of your own sport falls victim. He had such an exciting future with his commitment to D1. I was absolutely devastated when I saw the tweet of a missing swimmer. Best wishes and thoughts to the family, friends, and all involved.

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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