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Broward County Sheriff Fires Two More Deputies Over Parkland School Shooting

Broward County Sheriff Fires Two More Deputies Over Parkland School Shooting

“After we take that totality of facts, it became clear to me and our command staff that this was neglect of duty.”

https://www.wptv.com/news/state/broward-county-sheriffs-office-completes-internal-investigation-in-parkland-school-shooting

Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony announced on Wednesday that the department fired two more deputies for their inaction during the Marjory Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, FL, last year now that they have finished their internal affairs investigation.

The department fired four deputies over the shooting.

From WPTV:

Sheriff Tony said seven deputies were the subject of the internal affairs investigation, and four of them were fired:

  • Deputy Scot Peterson
  • Sgt. Brian Miller
  • Deputy Edward Eason
  • Deputy Josh Stambaugh

No disciplinary action was taking against the other three deputies. Sheriff Tony said Eason and Stambaugh were fired Tuesday. Peterson and Miller were previously fired in the case.

“We spent a lot of time looking at our policy and looking at the actions, looking at the statements provided by the deputies involved,” Sheriff Tony said at a news conference. “After we take that totality of facts, it became clear to me and our command staff that this was neglect of duty. And it was one of the most severe consequences. We lost 17 people.”

Peterson faces 11 charges, including “seven counts of neglect of a child, three counts of culpable negligence, and one count of perjury.” The file against Peterson found that he “did absolutely nothing to mitigate the MSD shooting.” Peterson also told arriving law enforcement to stay 500 feet away from the school.

Sgt. Brian Miller arrived and heard four shots. Instead of helping the kids, “he took time to put on his bulletproof vest and hid behind his car” and did not go “on the radio for 10 minutes.”

From The Sun Sentinel:

Stambaugh, who was assigned to the Sheriff’s Tamarac district, was working an off-duty shift at a nearby school when he responded to reports of shots fired at Stoneman Douglas. He got out of his truck, strolled to the back to put on his bulletproof vest and then took cover for about five minutes after hearing the shots, according to body camera footage. His next move was not into the school, but instead to get back into his truck and drive to a nearby highway. That trip took over five minutes and thirty seconds, a state commission investigating the law enforcement response found.

Eason ran the other way as gunfire blasted, then wasted precious time fiddling with his bulletproof vest and body camera while students were dying, investigators said.

Eason, who was assigned to the Parkland district, had also been faulted for not writing an official report after receiving a tip in February 2016 that the school shooter, Nikolas Cruz, was making threats on social media to shoot up a school.

The investigation cleared Brian Goolsby, Michael Kratz, and Arthur Perry.

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Comments

good riddance to bad rubbish.

A little bit off topic, but this photo brought it home for me, again. It really bugs me that police and sheriff’s departments use these military style rank insignia. I suppose they need to use something, but it’s the WAY they use them. So this sheriff wears 5 stars. Let’s see… a 5-star would be essentially a supreme allied commander, we don’t even have any these days. A few million troops under his command. The Broward Sheriff’s Department has about 5400 employees of which about 2800 are deputies. That’s about the size of an Army brigade or an Air Force Wing, both commanded by Colonels. If you’re going to commandeer military rank insignia at least show some restraint.

    Firewatch in reply to bobtuba. | June 26, 2019 at 1:52 pm

    They like to play dress up.

    Eddie Baby in reply to bobtuba. | June 26, 2019 at 2:22 pm

    They have to have some kind of ranking system. I don’t see anything wrong with the quasi military one, but five stars is pretty ridiculous. He might as well have a chest full of medals.

    tom_swift in reply to bobtuba. | June 26, 2019 at 3:23 pm

    It’s not that big a deal. It’s like getting a gold star sticker on your homework.

    Mac45 in reply to bobtuba. | June 26, 2019 at 6:21 pm

    The stars look stupid. Many Sheriffs simply wear collar brass which spells out the word SHERIFF. Many Chiefs of Police wear ones which say CHIEF. Lower ranks often follow the Army rank insignia, as it is more convenient. The current Broward County Sheriff, like the last one, is a tool.

Why did they have to put on their bulletproof vests? Shouldn’t they always wear them when on duty?

    Pillage Idiot in reply to ConradCA. | June 26, 2019 at 7:05 pm

    I only put on my seat belt when I know I am about to drive into an imminent car wreck. /sarc off

    DaveGinOly in reply to ConradCA. | June 27, 2019 at 10:08 am

    They may have presumed the shooter was using an AR-15 or similar weapon, and stopped to put on additional armor. The body armor worn daily is only rated against common handguns (and not all handguns), so another layer adds protection against some rifle fire. The AR-15 is actually not high on the scale of capability when it comes to rifles (e.g., some states don’t allow the use of .223 Remington/5.56 mm for deer hunting because it’s underpowered), so a supplement to their regular body armor could provide proof against such fire.

    Gremlin1974 in reply to ConradCA. | June 27, 2019 at 11:30 am

    To me them putting on vests is smart, however that being said, it take about 15 seconds to put on an external vest, 30 if you have to put your rig on over the vest. All of which can be done on the move. Standing around for 5 minutes or more cowering behind a vehicle….no. And the one that drove off after cowering for 5 minutes….I mean seriously? WTF?

Yeah, the military rank devices on civilian police and sheriffs has been bothering me for years now.

It has been the policy of virtually every police department since the Columbine massacre to immediately confront the shooter and kill him. The cowardice of the police at Columbine, where the police literally watched a faculty member, Dave Sanders, feet away from their position, die pushing students to safety, was a lesson in the failure of military tactics in a public safety situation that requires split second action.
Broward County clearly forgot the lesson. And I suspect many other police departments have as well.
When you create a gun free environment, you create a tempting target and you must adjust your tactics to take into account the vulnerability of the target created.

    Mac45 in reply to puhiawa. | June 26, 2019 at 6:38 pm

    Actually, the Sheriff’s Office at Columbine followed universally accepted police procedures for a hostage/shooter situation. As a result of Columbine, the procedures were changed. Since then the “run in and kill the shooter” tactics is largely a failure. By the time LEOs respond, enter, locate, engage and, hopefully, stop the shooter, many people are dead and wounded. Every single shooting situation, where the shooter makes entry, ends in disaster. People DIE. Every single time. And yet, we steadfastly refuse to do the one thing which actually stops these incidents, harden the site.

    Do you know who was responsible for allowing Cruz access to the school to begin with? The School Board and school employees. I keep reading these articles about how the deputies were cowards. How the Sheriff screwed up. How people does because of the LE response. But, where are the articles on how the school board has refused to harden schools. Where are the articles demonizing the school employees who who say Cruz on the campus with a bag, knew he was not supposed to be there and ignored him, never notifying the office and the one LEO on campus? Where are the articles calling for the suspension of the School Board. Where is the Governor? These people were killed and injured, not because LEOs did not simply run into a building to confront a shooter. They died because the the shooter was allowed to ENTER the campus with a rifle. They died because the school board did not consider a school shooting to be enough of a possibility to install any, let alone sufficient, security measures to thwart such an attack.

    Sheriff Israel was a scapegoat. Deputy Peterson was a scapegoat. The lawyers on this site will readily tell you that insufficient evidence existed to suspend Israel and the charges of child neglect against Peterson are simply absurd. This BS is all political cover for the School Board and the rest of the Broward County Democrat machine.

      tom_swift in reply to Mac45. | June 26, 2019 at 9:09 pm

      They’re not the only ones who failed. But that doesn’t absolve them of their failures.

        Mac45 in reply to tom_swift. | June 26, 2019 at 10:15 pm

        So, let’s hold those that failed equally responsible, shall we? Let’s see the governor suspend the School Board. How about the MSDHS employees who failed to protect the students, by not notifying the office of the presence of the shooter? When are we going to see them arrested and charged with child neglect? I’ll tell you when, never. Know why? Because the politicians do not want to see those who are guilty being punished, except the designated scapegoats.

        Now, I’m not saying that certain members of the Sheriff’s Office were not responsible for their actions. But, why are the only ones, who are being held publicly responsible in this case, members of the Sheriff’s Office? Because those in power do not want to accept their responsibility. Because the parents want to have someone to blame, to absolve themselves of their own guilt in this case. The parents of MSDHS are all politically well connected. They could have pushed for effective security at the school. Hogg’s old man is an FBI agent. We are to assume that it never occurred to him that a shooter might show up at the school? This is all about closure. It is all about making people feel safe, secure and good about themselves. And, still the schools are no safer than they were on the day that Cruz walked on campus and killed a bunch of people. This might seem like a good idea, until you become one of the scapegoats.

The Friendly Grizzly | June 26, 2019 at 2:09 pm

Military rank insignia, all the military toys Uncle has issued the police forces for the “war on terror”, and reference to not-them as “civilians”. In short, “the other”.

They are no longer a part of our community. That was lost when they stopped walking a beat and knowing their fellow townsmen. Now, they sit in their cars and scan everyone’s license plates. Some demand our mobiles and passwords without cause.

    You know why many LEOs do not consider themselves to be part of the community? Because the community craps on them all the time. The public makes up lies about LEOs to get out of their justly earned traffic citation. They criticize LEO’s performance, while having no idea what the job entails [run your typical liberal whiner through a shooting simulator and watch their attitudes do a 180]. The public, the media, and activists drive LEOs out of the community. Leos leave their families, go out on the streets to stop people from looting the town and they are criticized for it. The us v them mentality does not start in the LE community, it comes from the public. Want to change it? Be nice to your friendly neighborhood LEO.

notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital | June 26, 2019 at 3:04 pm

Over the past few years I’ve seen people talk about “false flag operations” deliberately used by the Democrat Party to push their corrupt agendas.

This is enough to make anyone believe that.

healthguyfsu | June 26, 2019 at 3:27 pm

David Hogg won’t comment on this part, at all. But he will claim to have 7 attempted “assassination attempts” this year.

This Sheriff has the unenviable task of taking over an office ripe with corruption and negligence of duty. I commend him for weeding out the cowards of that fateful day. I just hope he implements the training and culture needed to make BSO the once proud dept it used to be. The citizens deserve much better than they had. Only time will tell.

And the hacks at the top of the FBI are still working there?

Richard Aubrey | June 26, 2019 at 5:21 pm

Two security monitors had been harassing the girls. I think they were fired earlier. One of the harassment victims, Meadow Pollack, was killed as the security monitors hid.

Four abject failures out of the seven examined is a catastrophically high percentage, implying a systemic command problem.

Incredible pleadership by their weasel boss Scott Israel.

Muh unions will never allow it.