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Report: Broward County Sheriff Office had many more interactions with shooter than they claim
Feb 25, 2018 7:09 pm
The Broward County sheriff's office pushed back over the number of interactions it had with the Florida shooter before the shooting, but a new report suggests it was many more times. (Image source: YouTube screenshot)
The Broward County Sheriff’s Department released a scathing statement Saturday denying a multitude of media reports that claimed his department had 39 interactions with the Florida school shooter prior to the massacre. They claimed the number was nearly half that.
Now, a new report suggests the number of interactions surpassed the original claim.
BuzzFeed obtained records that indicate Broward County sheriff officials interacted with the shooter or his family 45 times since 2008. Of those, 22 were calls to send deputies to the shooter’s home. More from BuzzFeed:
Like many of the calls revealed by the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, several of them involved domestic disturbance issues involving [the shooter], his brother Zachary, and their adoptive mother.
Most of the calls involved their adoptive parents reporting that Zachary had not come home after curfew, or that he’d left the house without telling them or despite their objections. Others appear to be calls from neighbors, including one who reported the two brothers were throwing water balloons.
Others are unclear who is being referring to, though the call was made by a parent at the same home, reporting that their 12-year-old son was throwing things and cursing at a computer.
BuzzFeed reported they obtained the records after they requested information related to the calls made to the shooter’s home.
What did the department say?
The Broward County sheriff’s department released a lengthy statement Saturday urging the media to stop reporting the agency interacted with the shooter 39 times.
“Since 2008, BSO responded to 23 incidents where previous contact was made with the killer or his family. “STOP REPORTING 39; IT’S SIMPLY NOT TRUE,” the agency said.
Thousands of people nationwide have called on Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel to resign in the wake of the shooting and the revelations surrounding his department’s failures in preventing and responding to the shooting.
Video evidence reveals that an armed Broward County resource deputy stationed at Stoneman Douglas High School during the Valentine’s day massacre did “nothing” during the shooting – instead waiting outside as a gunman opened fire on students and teachers, killing 17.
Speaking at a press conference, Broward Sheriff Scott Israel said the on duty officer at Stoneman “never went in.” Israel said he was “devastated” after watching the video showing the deputy taking a position outside the Western side of Building 12 while shots rang out, “and he never went in” despite having a clear view of the entrance.
“I think he remained outside upwards of four minutes,” Israel said.
The uniformed officer, identified as Scot Peterson, was been suspended without pay pending an investigation, according to Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel – however he has since resigned and retired from the department.
“As is his right, Scot Peterson chose to resign, because he has the necessary time with the agency and meets the requirements of retirement, he resigned and retired.”
“We’re not going to disclose the video at this time, and we may never disclose the video depending on the prosecution and the criminal case.”
“These families lost their children, we lost coaches. I’ve been to the funerals. I’ve been to the homes where they’re sitting shiva. I’ve been to the vigils. It’s just, there are no words.”
When asked by a reporter what the deputy should have done, the Sheriff replied “Went in. Address the killer. Kill the killer.”
Broward Sheriff Israel says armed school resource deputy at Stoneman Douglas "never went in." The deputy was suspended without pay pending investigation.
In other words, where previously we learned that on Feb. 5, 2016 Broward Sheriff’s were warned by a neighbor’s son that Nikolas Cruz “Planned to shoot up the school on Instagram”, we now find out that during the shooting, a deputy could have saved lives but he hid instead as teenagers were killed.
The shooting lasted approximately six minutes before the suspected gunman, Nikolas Cruz, dropped his rifle and exited the school – blending in with fleeing students.
The Sheriff also noted that his office was involved in 23 calls regarding suspect Nikolas Cruz and his brother, and has placed BSO Col. Jack Dale and deputies Edward Easton and Guntis Treijis on restrictive duty as investigators look into whether more could have been done to prevent the shooting.
“Some of the calls we responded out and met with his mother,” said Israel.
“I’ve restricted two of our deputies as we dig deeper into this, take statements and make a decision to see whether or not they could have done more, should’ve done more,” said Israel.
Total Failure
Last week, the FBI agent in charge of the Florida shooting probe admitted that the Bureau had investigated a school shooting threat made on YouTube last year but could not identify person behind it – despiteNikolas Cruz using his real name to sign the threat.
The man who reported Cruz, Ben Bennight, spoke with the FBI last year for about 20 minutes, and there was no follow-up from the FBI after that initial conversation.
Then, Bennight told CBS that he again spoke with the FBI on Wednesday night for about 20 minutes. They wanted to know if he knew anything more after first reporting the YouTube video last year. He said the same agent/agents he spoke with last year came to his home Wednesday.
And last month, the FBI was warned a second time about Cruz:
“A person close to” Cruz called the agency’s tipline on Jan. 5 and reported the 19-year-old had a “desire to kill people, erratic behavior, and disturbing social media posts” and there was “potential of him conducting a school shooting,” the FBI said in a statement. –NY Post
Furthermore, as we reported earlier today, CNN’s FOIA of Broward County 911 records has produced a steady stream of scoops about Parkland, Fla. school shooter Nikolas Cruz fleshing out much of what is publicly known about Cruz’s background and the various reports made warning the FBI and other authorities about his threatening behavior.
The police were warned about Cruz’s violent past – that he’d “used a gun against people before” and had “put the gun to others’ heads in the past” – but still they did nothing.
No wonder Sheriff Israel is beside himself – both the FBI, the Broward County Sheriff’s office, and the armed school resource officer did absolutely nothing to prevent the deaths of 17 students. And now, back to blaming guns.
During an interview with radio host John Catsimatidis on Sunday, Catsimatidis
asked Jenner what she thought would come next in her fight to make
transgender issues more mainstream.
Jenner replied that she would consider elected office, saying, “Yeah, I would
look for a senatorial run.”
“I like the political side of it,” Jenner explained. “I work very closely with a
group called the American Unity Fund whose mission statement is to get
the Republican Party to do a better job when it comes to all LGBT issues.
That’s my issue.”
Jenner, who has been a lifelong Republican, changed her gender, but didn’t
change her political beliefs.
After receiving a slew of awards in 2015 for coming out as transgender,
including the ESPY’s Arthur Ashe Courage Award and Glamour magazine’s
Woman of the Year award, she rattled the liberal left in 2016 when she backed
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) in the Republican primary, and then backed then-
Republican nominee Donald Trump in the general election.
Despite her previous support for Trump, and that she was reportedly personally
invited by the President to attend his inauguration, she has since been critical
of the Administration’s views on transgender rights.
“Over the next six months or so, I’ve gotta find out where I can do a better job,”
she said, about her potential political run. “Can I do a better job on the outside?
Kind of working the perimeter of the political scene, being open to talk to anybody? Or are you better off from the inside? And we are in the process of determining that.”
If Jenner ran in 2018 in her native California, she would face a tough challenge—
both in the Republican primary, where her gender identity could be a stumbling
block with conservative voters, and in the general election against Democrat
Dianne Feinstein, who has been serving in the U.S. Senate since 1992.
Read more at http://americanactionnews.com/articles/surprising-celebrity-challenge-to-dem-senator#ZTQodepLO7PskcbS.99
As the Senate reconvened and news circulated Monday about a further collapse of the Affordable Care Act, many wondered if a proposed amendment from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) could be the effort’s last hope.
The Senate is on a tight deadline to rope at least 50 senators into some sort of an agreement before the month-long August recess. To heighten the need for a swift response even further, the Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index published Monday indicated the number of U.S. adults without health insurance has grown by 2 million, leaving 11.7 percent of U.S. adults uncovered. At the end of 2016, 10.9 percent of U.S. adults were uninsured, an all-time low that now appears to be in reverse.
McConnell Comments on Controversial Health Care Bill
"What it really suggests, if anything, is that the distortion in health care markets caused by the Affordable Care Act is simply hurting people," said Dr. Ramin Oskoui, a leading cardiologist in the Washington, D.C., area and a senior health care adviser to LifeZette. "The people simply can't afford the high-priced coverage that is the Affordable Care Act. It's insurance coverage that doesn't provide meaningful access to care — not when premiums are so high, not when deductibles are so high, not when co-pays for drugs and procedures are so high."
"So I think it speaks to how the Affordable Care Act basically has destroyed the insurance markets and destroyed people getting access to care," Oskoui said of the Gallup-Sharecare results.
All eyes have turned toward Senate Republicans, while their lengthy deliberations continue to yield no results. With President Donald Trump and his administration pressuring the GOP to come up with a suitable piece of health care reform before the August recess, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has found himself in a tight spot attempting to corral his caucus.
"I cannot imagine that Congress would dare to leave Washington without a beautiful new health care bill fully approved and ready to go!" Trump tweet Monday.
But GOP senators took to the Sunday talk shows to give their gloomy forecasts for the fate of their caucus' partial repeal and replace. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said on CBS News' "Face the Nation" that he thinks the bill is "probably going to be dead" by the end of this week.
Although McConnell hopes to offer a revised bill by the end of this week, many doubt that moderate Republicans such as Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) will ever come to an agreement with more conservative Republicans such as Cruz, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah). Lee co-sponsored Cruz's Consumer Freedom Act, which has continued to gain steam as a kind of "lesser of two evils" option for staunch conservatives. The White House endorsed Cruz's amendment, as did the Tea Party Patriots and other senators and House members.
"While we have serious concerns with the initial draft of the Senate health care bill, we believe the amendment proposed by senators Ted Cruz and Mike Lee offers the possibility of removing several of the most restrictive regulations in Obamacare that rob people of health care choices and drive insurance costs higher and higher," the Tea Party Patriots said in a statement last week, adding that the organization "will be more likely to support the bill for passage as the next step in the process to repeal Obamacare" if the Cruz amendment is included.
But moderate Republicans have balked at Cruz's plan, saying it will increase the cost of coverage for Americans with pre-existing conditions. Cruz, who has characterized his own amendment as a "compromise," noted that it would allow insurers to sell plans that don't comply with all of Obamacare's regulations and mandates if they agree to sell compliant plans as well.
"I think that unfortunately it is all posturing, means nothing. Even if it passed it would mean nothing, and I'm sure Ted Cruz is fundraising off, you know, these superficial attempts to accomplish something, in my opinion. It doesn't fundamentally address the cost of health care," Oskoui said. "So that's why all this is jazz and that's why you're not going to see anything happen."
"It won't make a difference. It's the difference between having bright red lipstick and rouge lipstick. It's still putting lipstick on a pig, and also it won't change anything," he added, calling the Cruz amendment "largely nonsense" because it doesn't constitute a full repeal.
If the Senate wants to bring about meaningful change in health care, it must have the courage to address "the actual cost issues," Oskoui said.
"And I think that any lawmaker — and I don't have any animus toward Senator Paul or Senator Cruz, I've never met either man in person — but anyone who dances around the facts is simply not addressing the fundamental core issue," he said. "And that's not happening. Their bills won't go anywhere for obvious political reasons."
Should the amendment fail, Cruz, Paul and Lee all expressed their support for a full repeal with a replacement coming later, after the Senate has more time to come to an agreement. But moderate Republicans such as Collins "just don't want to address the cost issues" that health care coverage poses, Oskoui said, noting that neither "the Democrats or the Republicans are actually serious about solving the financial crisis that the ACA has exacerbated that's been going on for years."
"All they're about is playing the middle class … slow-rolling Trump's base who are the ones who are really suffering from all this," he said.
"We're addicted to government like so many people are addicted to opioids, and nobody wants to address the real addiction issue," Oskoui added. "That's why we're not going to see any meaningful change, because there are too many powerful constituencies that don't want change." (go to page 2 to continue reading)
