Pennsylvania, South Jersey ties emerge as Florida shooting victims are named

At least two of the 17 people killed in Florida during the nation's deadliest school shooting in five years had ties to Pennsylvania and another who survived had ties to South Jersey, according to media reports.

Nikolas Cruz, 19, was charged with murder Thursday after opening fire with an AR-15 on the faculty and students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, outside of Miami on Wednesday, killing 17 — many of whose lives were just beginning.

But Chris Hixon, 49, a Lehigh Valley native, was already fully established in his career as the school's athletic director.  He was named athletic director of the year in 2017 by the Broward County Athletics Association, according to the New York Times.

Hixon, as WFMZ reported, graduated Pleasant Valley High School in Monroe County in 1986.  Those who went to school with him at Pleasant Valley High remembered him as a very friendly person who "excelled in everything he did," according to the news station.

"When I came to Pleasant Valley I was still trying to find where I belong and he was one of the people who took me under his wing and really directed me and help me find my path," Pleasant Valley graduate Rocco Seiler told WFMZ.

The school district said that Hixon will be "fondly remembered" by the community in a Facebook post shared Thursday.

"By all accounts, Chris was an outstanding educator and role model for his students," the post read. "Our thoughts and prayers are with his friends and family."

Hixon was also a naval reservist and deployed to Iraq 11 years ago, CNN reported.

While saving his teenage students, geography teacher Scott Beigel was shot and killed. He was 35.

"I had thought he was behind me, but he wasn't," student Kelsey Friend told the Sun Sentinel. "When he opened the door, he had to re-lock it so we could stay safe, but he didn't get the chance to."

Beigel also coached cross country at the school and worked as a counselor at Camp Starlight, a predominantly Jewish summer camp in Starlight, Pennsylvania, a town in the state's northeast corner.

"The Starlight Family is wrapping their arms around each other today singing from our hearts to Starlight's beloved friend and hero, Scott Beigel," read a Thursday post on Camp Starlight's Facebook page.

Many users commented on the post to say that Beigel had been a mentor to their children and grandchildren.

"Scott helped shape my boys into the people they are today," Micheline Wolf Schwartz wrote. "I will be eternally grateful he was in their lives and we will never let him be forgotten."

Carly Novell, the 17-year-old senior who hid in a closet as classmates were shot, took to Twitter on Thursday.  She shared details of her story and its eerie similarity to that of her grandfather, Charles Cohen, a Camden native who survived an infamous attack by gunman Howard Unruh in 1949.

Cohen also had to hide in a closet for safety when he was 12, while his family was murdered by gunman Unruh in their Camden home.

The Unruh shooting, later called the "Walk of Death," left 13 killed.

"He was like a nervous grandmother," Novell told the Inquirer and Daily News. "He was a very loving, very caring man. He didn't walk around angry. He walked around with a heavy sadness."

Cruz, the Florida shooting suspect, was employed at a dollar store and joined the school's ROTC program, the Associated Press reported. Cruz's questionable social media presence, which include threatening comments made on YouTube, was uncovered after the shooting unfolded. He allegedly has ties to a white supremacist group.

Cruz told police on Thursday that he "began shooting students that he saw in the hallways and on school ground."

"He looked like a typical high school student, and for a quick moment I thought, could this be the person who I need to stop?" Officer Michael Leonard told the New York Times.