On February 14, 2018, Valentine’s Day, a gunman named Nikola Cruz, opened fire inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, killing seventeen people. And injured 17 others not to mention the trauma of 100’s of others. Survivors quickly identified Cruz as the shooter as he had been a student at the school himself…
He was arrested an hour after the shooting off school grounds, after he left unarmed, from the buildings with other students that fled the massacre.
As a result of this horrible tragedy there was enormous public outcry against the AR15 weapon system since it was used by Cruz in the massacre.
The other huge problem which is even more alarming was the lack of police response. Sheriff Scott Israel of Broward County Sheriff’s Office, of course denied any wrongdoing. Claims the deputies were trained and equipped and its not his fault they didn’t act.
Not only did they fail to act during the shooting, Broward County SO and the FBI had been previously warned about Cruz contemplating a school shooting on FB and DID NOTHING.
Deputy Sheriff Scott Peterson was on duty and on campus as the School Resource Officer, the day of the massacre. He sat inside his patrol vehicle and never set foot inside the school to locate, isolate and kill the shooter, he was forced to resign {yet keep his pension and all other benefits}.
In addition to useless Peterson, there were at least 3 more deputies on the grounds and they also did nothing to stop the shooter.
However, there was one off duty from Coral Springs PD, Sgt. Jeff Heinrich who did attempt lifesaving efforts on wounded students.
Since the Columbine High School massacre on April 20, 1999 police officers and deputy sheriffs all over the USA were receiving specialized training on how to deal with active shooter events. It is a well known fact that SWAT cannot mobilize fast enough to a sudden active shooter event. Hence the training all officers receive is how to mobilize quickly from wherever they are and respond to the event, search, find and engage the shooter. Not sit outside and Hide.
Captain Jan Jordan of the Broward County SO recently resigned in November 2018 under a hail of ridicule for her lack of command leadership at the scene. She chose the typical non response by having deputies set up a perimeter instead of leading deputies into the event and seeking out the killer and stopping his rampage. Her lack of leadership also prevented wounded students from receiving the help they needed resulting in more deaths because of the inaction by law enforcement. Sgt Miller arrived at the scene before Captain Jordan and he did nothing to assist in life saving efforts.
This inaction by law enforcement is inexcusable and unacceptable by any standards.
Now Federal Judge Beth Bloom dismissed a lawsuit brought forth by 15 of the surviving students, on the grounds that the police had No Duty to protect the students, since they were not in custody.
This is exactly the type of court decisions that alienate police from th community they are paid to PROTECT and SERVE!
The outcry from the decision is as loud as the public outcry when the shooting occurred. If the police cannot use the training, weapons, and authority to save young people being gunned down inside their schools, then they are useless.
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