Panthers honour Florida shooting victims with emotional pregame tribute

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SUNRISE, FL. (NEWS 1130) – The Florida Panthers are doing their part to help a community heal on Thursday night, one week after a high school shooting left more than a dozen people dead in nearby Parkland, Florida.

The team dedicated Thursday’s game, their first home appearance since the attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, to honouring the victims and their families.

Their efforts have included a blood drive, several fundraisers and a pre-game tribute in which an emotional Roberto Luongo addressed the crowd. (You can watch the entire tribute at the top of this post.)

“No child should ever have to go through that,” Luongo said. “It’s terrible. It’s time for us, as a community, to take action. Enough is enough. We’ve got to take action.”

The 38-year-old goaltender lives in Parkland and also said he intends to spend the rest of his life there.

The team also removed all advertisements from the rink’s boards, focusing only on paying tribute to the community using the hashtag #MSDStrong. Players will sport the MSD stickers on their helments and crests on their sweaters for the remainder of the season.

Meantime, authorites in Florida are asking the federal government for at least $1 million in emergency grant funds to reimburse state and local agencies for the cost of responding to last week’s school shooting.

Petrina Tuttle Herring, a bureau chief over grants for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, made the request Tuesday in a letter to the US Department of Justice.

Herring wrote that the total cost of the response to the shooting can’t yet be determined, but local agencies say they incurred “significant costs.” She called the $1 million an initial amount to help cover the personnel costs for investigative, intelligence and custody/supervision work, plus ongoing and capital expenses stemming from the incident.

The Feb. 14 shooting claimed the lives of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

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