Sheriff defends himself:

The Florida sheriff appointed by the governor after the 2018 Parkland high school massacre is defending himself over allegations that he should have disclosed he fatally shot another teenager when he was 14 in Philadelphia.

Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony told reporters over the weekend that he didn’t see the need to disclose the 1993 killing to Gov. Ron DeSantis or on other applications during his law enforcement career because he was a juvenile and he was cleared because it was self-defense.

The shooting came to light Saturday in an article published by the Florida Bulldog website and further roiled the August Democratic primary race between Tony and the fired sheriff he replaced, Scott Israel.

DeSantis, days after he took office, fired Israel in January 2019 because of the sheriff’s office’s mishandling of the Feb. 14, 2018, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre that left 17 dead and replaced him with the little-known Tony. The former Coral Springs sergeant had quit that department in 2016 to operate a consulting firm that specialized in active shooter training. The two former Republicans are the leading candidates in the primary that will likely decide the race in the heavily Democratic county.

“It was chaos. It was frightening. The most horrific thing I ever experienced,”

Tony told the Miami Herald about the shooting. “For this to be used by a political opponent to turn me into a 14-year-old black kid with a gun, we’re on a dangerous precedent here.”

The shooting happened at the Tony family home in the Badlands neighborhood of Philadelphia, an area known for its violence

and open air drug dealing. (AP)