Sheriff’s department reveals failures linked to school shooting
MIAMI — Eight days after Nikolas Cruz allegedly murdered 17 people inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Broward’s top cop on Thursday revealed a stunning series of failures by the sheriff’s department.
A school campus cop heard the gunfire, rushed to the building but never went inside — instead waiting outside for another four agonizing minutes as Cruz reportedly continued the slaughter.
And long before Cruz allegedly embarked on the worst school shooting in Florida history, Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies had multiple warnings that the 19-year-old was a violent threat and a potential school shooter, according to records released Thursday.
In November, a tipster called BSO to say Cruz “could be a school shooter in the making” but deputies did not write up a report on that warning. It came just weeks after a relative called urging BSO to seize his weapons. Two years ago, according to a newly released timeline of interactions with Cruz’s family, a deputy investigated a report that Cruz “planned to shoot up the school” — intelligence that was forwarded to the school’s resource officer, with no apparent result.
The school’s resource officer, Scot Peterson, was suspended without pay then immediately resigned and retired. Two other deputies have been placed on restricted duty while Internal Affairs investigates how they handled the two shooter warnings.
The admissions, made by Broward Sheriff Scott Israel at a press conference on Thursday evening, added to the growing list of missed signs in the years before Cruz allegedly went on a rampage that has horrified the nation and re-ignited the debate on gun control. The FBI, in an earlier and equally astonishing admission, said last week that the agency failed to act on a tip in January that Cruz was a possible violent threat.
“I’m completely disgusted,” said Broward County Commissioner Michael Udine, a former mayor of Parkland whose daughter attends Stoneman Douglas. “There is nobody in authority talking to each other and every organization that had a chance to stop this completely failed our children from top to bottom.”
Thursday’s revelations came the week after Cruz allegedly took an Uber to the Parkland high school, armed with an AR15 rifle and extra ammunition, and opened fire inside Building 12 on the sprawling campus. Seventeen people died, and another 15 people were injured.
Cruz allegedly ditched the weapon and escaped, blending in with fleeing students. He was captured about an hour later and confessed to the killings. He is now awaiting trial and could face the death penalty.
Since the massacre, law enforcement and education authorities have come under intense scrutiny for their handling of Cruz over the years. BSO, the county’s largest police department, is also under the microscope for its response to the shooting — chiefly for how school resource deputy Peterson responded once the gunfire erupted at 2:21 p.m. on Valentine’s Day.