As the nation’s attention was riveted on reports of the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla., Rabbi Hershy Bronstein read a report from the local sheriff’s office that a suspect had been arrested at a McDonald’s restaurant just across the street from the Chai Center Chabad in Coral Springs, Fla.

Bronstein said his heart “skipped a beat” because of how close the shooter had been to the educational facility he directs. He also thought it was likely that he had evidence that could help police.

It turned out that he did. He reviewed camera footage from the Chai Center and saw Nikolas Cruz, 19, walking down the street into the fast-food restaurant after allegedly killing 17 people at the public high school.

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“I recognized that this has a lot of value to the investigation for [law enforcement], and I knew that I had a moral responsibility to help,” said Bronstein, who has worked in the Jewish community in South Florida since 2005.

The FBI and news organizations later stopped at the center and asked to see the footage. Cruz has since been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.

The rabbi has been helping in other ways as well.

The Chai Center is only a mile away from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Students who attended Hebrew school, or had their bar or bat mitzvah ceremonies at Chabad, typically also attended that high school, said Bronstein. For one of the students killed in the attack—14-year-old Alex Schachter—the rabbi has arranged a minyan for those sitting shiva.

The shooting has affected every family in the area, added the rabbi.