SHERIFF UNDER FIRE
Refuses to quit over his Broward cowards
had a deputy who didn’t go in.”
Israel’s defiance came as Republican state lawmakers sent a letter to Florida Gov. Rick Scott, also a Republican, urging him to suspend the sheriff, a Democrat, over his “incompetence and neglect of duty” in the months leading up to the Feb. 14 shooting that killed 17.
“As a result of Sheriff Israel’s failures, students and teachers died,” read the letter from state House Speaker Richard Corcoran and 73 other Republican lawmakers.
Scott on Sunday directed the Florida Department of Law En- forcement to investigate Israel’s office. The office, Scott said, has to be transparent about what happened.
“We have to do a thorough investigation, and whoever didn’t do their job has to be held accountable,” the governor told “Fox News Sunday.”
“I talk to law enforcement around the state. There’s no one I talk to that is not disgusted that the local sheriff ’s deputy that was there did not go in and kill that individual.”
Israel said in a statement that his office would “fully cooperate” with the probe.
Citing Coral Springs police officers who responded to the attack, reports have said at least three other Broward deputies, in addition to Peterson, stayed outside the building as Nikolas Cruz, 19, opened fire inside his former school with an AR-15.
But Israel said he couldn’t confirm that “right now.”
“All I can tell you is . . . while the killer was on campus with this horrific killing, there was one deputy, one armed person within proximity of that school. And that was Peterson,” Israel told Tapper.
The Florida sheriff whose four deputies allegedly cowered in fear during the Parkland school massacre lauded his own “amazing leadership” Sunday — even as state lawmakers called for his suspension and the governor ordered a probe into the botched handling of the mass shooting.
In a blistering exchange with CNN host Jake Tapper, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel not only refused to step aside, he scoffed at taking responsibility for the inaction of his deputies, including the resource officer at Marjory Stoneman Douglas HS who allegedly took cover behind a car outside as the bloodbath unfolded inside the school.
“Do I believe if Scot Peterson went into that building . . . there was a chance he could have neutralized the killer and saved lives? Yes,” Israel said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“I can only take responsibility for what I knew about,” he said. “I exercised my due diligence. I’ve given amazing leadership.”
Tapper shot back incredulously, “Amazing leadership?”
Israel replied: “You don’t mea- sure a person’s leadership by a deputy not going in . . . These deputies received the training they needed.”
Asked whether the killings could have been averted if his office had properly followed up on at least nearly two dozen previous calls about the shooter, Israel gave a bizarre response.
“If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, O.J. Simpson would still be in the record books,” he said.
A frustrated Tapper said he didn’t know what that meant.
Israel did acknowledge at one point, “We understand everything wasn’t done perfectly.”
But, he added, “If it happened in Los Angeles or Chicago or any other city, every person wouldn’t have performed perfectly. That’s not what happens.”
And despite reports that other deputies had remained outside during the shooting, Israel pinned the blame on Peterson, who was allowed to retire last week after being suspended over his apparent cowardice.
“One person at this point didn’t do what he should have done. It’s horrific,” he said. “The victims here, the families, I pray for them every night. It makes me sick in the stomach that we