‘I wish I could have been there’: Broward sheriff defends agency after Parkland shooting

Broward Sheriff Scott Israel told a state commission Thursday that faulty radios, a patchwork 911 system and — perhaps — a lack of courage hampered the response of deputies responding to the Parkland school shooting

But he did not directly address the actions of seven deputies who failed to enter the campus even though they arrived in time to hear gunfire. And he rejected notions of a systemic breakdown in how the Broward Sheriff’s Office handled the chaotic mass shooting.

“Sometimes it’s not about policies and it’s not about training, it’s about performance,” Israel said. “And you just can’t measure heart.”

Israel, who opened by apologizing to parents who had lost their children, faced questions from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission during a meeting in Sunrise — the first time he has spoken publicly about BSO’s response since the commission was established in March.

“I wish I could have been there for the kids that day,” said Israel, who arrived on the scene after victims were already being medically treated.

Commission member Kevin Lystad, chief of Miami Shores Police Department, opened the questioning by saying he was concerned about a “lack of urgency” deputies showed after arriving on scene.

Former student Nikolas Cruz had left 17 people dead or dying on Feb. 14 after opening fire for roughly six minutes in the school’s freshman building. As they arrived, deputies took cover behind cars, directed traffic and spent time putting on their bulletproof vests. It took 11 minutes for law enforcement officers to enter the building, and even then officers from Coral Springs Police Department led the way.

The BSO deputies “weren’t really prepared when they showed up on the scene,” Lystad said.

Israel — in a statement that seemed to surprise commissioners — said that he did not believe BSO deputies knew there was an active shooter on scene, except for school resource officer and BSO Deputy Scot Peterson, who was already on campus. That notion was quickly disputed by Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, the committee’s chairman, who pointed out Peterson and others had reported shots being fired over their radios.

As it turned out, Israel had not yet seen or been briefed on the extensive work commission investigators did to produce a second-by-second account of law enforcement’s response. He said he would review the commission’s findings — and then take action if necessary, as he did with Peterson, who resigned after it was revealed he never went into the building.

“If we find out that one or more deputies chose a path of inaction, they will be disciplined, and they will be disciplined swiftly,” Israel said. “I absolutely look forward to reading the [commission’s] report.”

BSO’s response to the shooting has put Israel, a Democrat, in an uncomfortable political position. Florida’s Republican governor-elect, Ron DeSantis, has publicly said Israel should be removed from office. The failure of BSO deputies to immediately go into the freshman building was even more stark when compared to the actions of Coral Springs officers, commissioners said.

Ryan Petty, whose daughter Alaina was killed at Stoneman Douglas, remarked on the “significant response difference between what I saw from Coral Springs Officers and BSO.”

Coral Springs officers go through active shooter training every year. The BSO deputies first on the scene had not gone through training in two or three years.

Israel said he doubted BSO’s training was inadequate.

“You can’t train courage. You can’t train performance,” Israel said. “ My focus is going to be on ... performance issues and holding people accountable.”

Israel also pointed to an overloaded radio system — maintained by Broward County — that left his deputies unable to communicate with each other or Coral Springs officers. In addition, he faulted the county’s fragmented 911 system, which by design sent cellphone calls from inside Stoneman Douglas to a Coral Springs call center even though BSO polices the area.

“I urge this commission wholeheartedly to make recommendations, legislation, so we can have one communication system,” Israel said.

He explained that incident commander Capt. Jan Jordan, who has been criticized for failing to take control of the chaotic scene, referred to her radio as a “brick.”

“You can be in command, that doesn’t mean you’re in control,” Israel said.

On occasion, Israel seemed to echo comments he made on CNN in the weeks after the shooting that he had given BSO “amazing leadership,” which struck critics as tone deaf then, given Peterson’s failures.

One commissioner pointed out that “command-and-control” problems also troubled BSO’s response to a shooting at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in 2017. A report by the sheriff’s office found that the absence of a clearly defined command structure “created unnecessary entanglements and unclear responsibilities,” according to the Sun Sentinel.

On Thursday, Israel disagreed.

“I think the command and control was exceptional,” he said.

This story was originally published November 15, 2018 at 6:55 PM.