Cellphone camera lens captured the moments an active shooter sprung terror at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward county.
The 'inside look' at mass shootings is becoming all too familiar.
"When I see these videos online that are so graphic, I'm always afraid," said Sheriff William Snyder, Martin County Sheriff's Office.
Videos surfacing on social media during mass shootings is the new normal.
"American society seems to be existing on a social media platform," said Sheriff Snyder.
But Sheriff Snyder believes it comes a price.
"I think it's inherently dangerous for the person that's doing it," said the sheriff.
High school students at Douglas High in Parkland hid from the shooter, but documented everything on their phones.
"To try to document the scene through a narrow focal point of a camera, would take your senses away from the big picture," said Sheriff Snyder.
Some moved their camera lens anywhere their eyes went, seeing injured classmates and gruesome images in the hallways. The videos naturally could mortify anyone, but Sheriff Snyder says not everyone.
"I do fear the copycat. I’m afraid of a person struggling with mental illness who sees these graphic images and doesn’t process them like a well person, but rather processes them somewhat like our shooter here and wants to go copycat and do it," he added.
