'It was terrifying': Teacher tearfully remembers students killed in Parkland shooting

Teacher Ivy Schamis gave tearful testimony Wednesday about the day of the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas school shooting in Parkland, Florida, where 14 students and three staff members were killed.

During the trial deciding whether the shooter, Nikolas Cruz, would be executed or sentenced to life in prison without parole, the teacher recalled the minutes before the massacre began.

At that point, a student in her Holocaust studies class correctly responded that Adolf Dassler founded the Adidas shoe company and added that Dassler's brother founded the rival Puma brand during Nazi Germany.

After that answer, gunshots began to be heard in the hallway and Cruz fired through the glass of the classroom door.

“It was really seconds later that the barrel of that AR-15 just ambushed our classroom. It came right through that glass panel and was just shooting everywhere. It was very loud. Very frightening. I kept thinking about these kids who should not be experiencing this at all,” Schamis testified as she broke into tears.

Three of her own students were injured, and two died: Nicholas Dworet and Helena Ramsay, both 17.

Dworet's brother Alexander was also grazed by a bullet in a classroom across the hall, where three students were killed, and several others were injured.

The teacher added that the students rushed for safety behind classroom furniture and acted bravely and maturely as they waited to be rescued.

Shamis was shown the portraits of the deceased students and began to cry. "That's my girl, Helena Ramsay. Nicholas Dworet, handsome boy."

The jury will vote 17 times to recommend or not the death penalty: once for each victim.

Each vote must be unanimous; a non-unanimous vote for any victims means Cruz's sentence for that person would be life in prison.

Cruz, 23, pleaded guilty last October to 17 counts of first-degree murder; the only thing he contests is the death penalty sentence prosecutors are seeking.