Bad info led cops to hunt Cruz in wrong building

The mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School created such confusion among police that officers stormed a building in a different area of the school expecting to find the gunman, according to a police account released Tuesday.

Margate Police Officer Chad Ryen, an off-duty SWAT officer who lives a mile from the school, raced over in his squad car and found “officers with their weapons drawn positioned behind vehicles and pillars.” Ryen made his way into the school and teamed up with three Coral Springs police officers and a SWAT medic.

The five received information that the gunman was in an administrative office on the southeast side of campus, so they entered the east door of that building — searching for the shooter to no avail. Instead, it was

the 1200 building where gunman Nikolas Cruz staged his attack. Cruz has admitted killing 17 and wounding 17 others.

Ryen’s report is the latest to show the disarray that plagued police officers at the shooting scene:

— Several accounts have described officers waiting outside the school rather than rushing in to confront the shooter. The school’s assigned deputy, Scot Peterson, resigned while under investigation for taking shelter near an adjacent building.

— Peterson and other officers have said they were unsure where gunshots were coming from.

— Police didn’t realize they were watching delayed recordings on school surveillance cameras, which showed Cruz stalking through the building after he had already left.

— Police radios failed, making it impossible at times to communicate.

Ryen said he had just arrived home from the gym Feb. 14 when he got a horrific text message from somebody close to him, telling him about the shooting at Stoneman Douglas.

It’s unclear what time Ryen arrived at the school. At the scene, a sheriff’s deputy told him to wait for SWAT officers to arrive.

A deputy said, “Stand by, SWAT is on the way,” but Ryen replied that he was SWAT and said there was no time to wait, according to his written account. “Based on my training and experience, I made the determination to make entry into the school,” he said.

Ryen’s report was among the first incident reports released by Margate police about their officers’ response to the shooting at Stoneman Douglas.

The agency sent 21 officers, detectives, sergeants, a lieutenant and K-9 officer to the school, and additional SWAT members. Two of those SWAT members also are medics.

Ryen could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

After Ryen helped school staff evacuate the administrative building, he wrote that his wife, Claudia Ryen, also a Margate police officer, texted him that the person who had alerted them about the shooting was hiding in the auditorium.

Chad Ryen raced to the auditorium along with a Coral Springs medic and found that 60 students and teachers hiding behind chairs were safe.

Margate’s police reports are the latest in the string of documents released by various agencies about the Parkland shooting in recent days.

The Broward Sheriff ’s Office on Friday provided records that showed other deputies arrived in time to hear gunshots. But the deputies didn’t immediately enter the building where the shooting took place because they couldn’t zero in on where the gunfire was coming from, the deputies’ reports said.

On Monday, the Coral Springs Police Department released documents that included the account of Tim Burton, one of the first police officers to arrive at the school. Burton said that when he arrived, Peterson was taking cover; told him he didn’t know the shooter’s location; and warned Burton that he needed to watch his back.

At 7 p.m., Margate police officers were sent home.