Dispatch records obtained by the Miami Herald indicate Broward County deputies who arrived on the scene of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting were instructed to form a perimeter instead of confronting the shooter who murdered 17 people.
The order came from Capt. Jan Jordan.
Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel had said publicly that active-shooter training instructs officers to immediately confront the shooter or shooters. Forming a perimeter is secondary.
The documents show the shooting lasted approximately 6 minutes and was likely over by the time officers arrived on the scene. In a press conference revealing (now former) school deputy Scot Peterson stayed outside rather than confronting the shooter, Sheriff Israel said Peterson should have “went in. Addressed the killer. Killed the killer.”
From the Miami Herald:
The Broward Sheriff’s Office captain who initially took charge of the chaotic scene at a Parkland high school where 17 people were killed told deputies to form a perimeter around the deadly scene — which they did instead of going in to confront the shooter, according to a partial BSO dispatch log obtained by the Miami Herald.Capt. Jan Jordan, commander of BSO’s Parkland district, gave the order, the log shows, identifying her by her police call sign.Broward Sheriff Scott Israel has said BSO training and nationwide active-shooter procedure call for armed law enforcement officers to confront shooters immediately rather than secure a scene.The document raises fresh questions about the department’s handling of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14.Before being appointed to command Parkland, Jordan was assigned to BSO’s civil division, which serves subpoenas and injunctions, according to her online biography. She was previously with the Fort Lauderdale Police Department, where Israel also worked.
According to The Herald, the BSO, “did not directly dispute that Jordan issued a stand-down order. Nor did the agency confirm it.”
Fox News has more details:
What appears to corroborate all of the sources’ allegations of bad commands is a portion of the February 14 dispatch log obtained by Fox News that appears to indicate there were several orders for crews to stage and form a perimeter. The logs appeared to indicate that at the same time these commands were given, law enforcement still had not located the active shooter and even a responding air crew refused to take off — apparently in fear of being shot down — because it was not established the shooter was in custody.One law enforcement source said it still was an “extremely” active shooter situation since authorities had not located the shooter and critical emergency aircrews were not taking off. The source said deputies and police should be have been rushing in to neutralize the threat versus staging or setting up a perimeter.Jeff Bell, the president of the Broward County Sheriff’s Deputies Association, said it wasn’t clear how many officers were already on the scene or in the school when the first perimeter and stage command came out. But Bell says unless “50” officers were already inside then it was a bad command to order staging. “If that is the correct log at ten minutes, that we were more concerned with the perimeter than finding the shooter, it was a bad command. It could have stalled our officers or cost lives.”Bell said he estimates the dispatch log obtained by Fox News is 99 percent accurate.
Fox created the following timeline of the shooting and law enforcement response based on the dispatch records and other available information:
According to multiple reports and police information, Nikolas Cruz entered Building 12 on the campus of Marjory Stoneman around 2:21 p.m. and began firing. Law enforcement tells Fox News the shooting lasted about seven and a half minutes.According to a portion of the dispatch log, there was a call that came in at 2:23 p.m. from a female student about shots fired.At 2:25 p.m., more “SHOTS FIRED” were recorded by responding officers or witnesses.At 2:26 p.m., the log indicated another call came in advising the shooting was coming from “THE 1200 BLDG.”At 2:26:56 p.m., Cruz was still firing, according to units on scene. “UNITS ADV SHOTS FIRED” the log read.At 2:29 p.m., the log indicated responding officers did not know where Cruz was. “UKNOWN SHOOTER LOCATION,” the log read.At 2:30 another active shooter call was logged, that a mother of a student advised, “HE HEARD SHOTS FIRED HE IS IN 11th GRADE IN A MATH CLASS UNK ROOM NUMBER.”At this point, eleven minutes after it was believed Cruz first opened fire, the log indicated one of the commanding officers started ordering responding officers to begin forming a perimeter, which one law enforcement source said would go against all training to first neutralize the threat.At 2:32 p.m., the dispatch call log indicated the first command to form a perimeter was issued, “17S1…NEED PERIMETER.”Sources told Fox News the 17S1 insignia on the log that day is important because it is the insignia, or code, for who was making the commands. 17S1 stands for 17 Sierra One.A short while later, as the dispatch log indicated the whereabouts of the shooter was unknown; the first command to “stage” apparently was given.2:34:48 p.m., “17S1 STAGE SIDE SAWGRASS.”Then, three minutes after that staging order, the log indicated the scene was still active as emergency aircrews indicated they would not go because it hadn’t been confirmed the shooter was in custody.2:38 p.m., “AIR RESCUE ADVISED NOT LAUNCING UNTIL CONFIRMED SUBJ IS IN CUSTODY,” the log read.At 2:47 p.m., 15 minutes after the first command to form a perimeter was issued and 13 minutes after the first command to stage was issued, the log indicated the SWAT team entered the school.At 3:02 p.m., the log apparently indicated the 20-minute delay in surveillance that law enforcement was using to track down Cruz. “20 MIN DELAY FROM CAMERA HE EXITED THE BUILDING RUNNING SOUTH,” the log stated.At 3:03 p.m. the log stated, “VIDEO SHOWS HE POSS MIXED WITH KIDS.”At 3:10 the log indicated Nikolas Cruz has been identified by a baseball coach, “POSS STUDENT NICHOLAS CRUSE 43 FROM BASEBALL COACH.”At 3:16 the log indicated Cruz was identified again. “UNIT ADV ON DISPATCH 11A THAT THE SUBJ IS POSS A WM NAMED NICHOLAS CRUZ, WM LSAW A BURG SHIRT, BLK SHORTS, WAS LAST SEEN ON S/E END OF THE SCHOOL…” the log stated.
The lack of response to numerous warnings about Cruz’s behavior and promises to shoot up a school prior to his murderous rampage and the local law enforcement’s handling of the shooting itself are both cause for concern. We’ve discussed the many issues at length here.
Despite it all, Sheriff Israel refuses to resign.
For what good it will do, the Florida House opened an investigation, subpoenaing Broward County Schools and law enforcement.
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