Ten months after the bloodbath, the sheriff responsible for protecting schoolchildren at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School says he doesn’t think he did anything wrong.
“That responsibility is with the killer,” Broward Sheriff Scott Israel said in an interview last week.
But such statements attempt to deflect blame for his own agency’s failures on Feb. 14, when 17 staff and students were killed at the Parkland high school.
A review of Israel’s performance since then shows continued excuses, falsehoods and inaction, revealing a leader who appears unwilling or incapable of addressing deep-rooted problems under his leadership.
— Despite revelations that many of his deputies didn’t try to enter the school while shots were fired, Israel has been slow to recognize the problem or impose discipline.
— The sheriff, in testimony to a state commission, misstated facts about what deputies and commanders knew during the crisis.
— In public statements, he has glossed over failures and described his leadership as exceptional, a response that came as no surprise to those who knew him.
— After a mass murder at Fort Lauderdale’s airport, he failed to address problems that would later cripple his agency’s response in Parkland. And a highly critical internal report about the agency’s performance at the airport, obtained by the South Florida Sun Sentinel, was scrubbed of dozens of recommendations and revised with a statement praising the sheriff.
In sum, Israel comes across as a politician who is quick to defend and slow to punish despite mounting evidence of problems.
Eight sheriff’s deputies stood outside Stoneman Douglas listening to gunshots inside. The sheriff’s own policies allowed deputies to decide for themselves whether to go in and confront the killer. Deputies claimed they couldn’t remember specifics of how they’d been trained for an active shooter. The commander at the scene appeared “dream-like” and overwhelmed. Tips warning about the shooter Nikolas Cruz’s plans were mishandled. And police radios, a problem for years, froze and left cops unable to communicate.
Those events have created a drumbeat for Israel’s removal from office, from conservatives nationwide to the parents of children killed at Parkland. Defenders say he’s being blamed for errors that any agency might have made in a crisis. But even some of his friends are dismayed by his relentless praise of his agency’s work on one of the darkest days in South Florida’s history.
Just 11 days after the shooting — the day the last child of Parkland was buried — the sheriff appeared on CNN and extolled his own “amazing leadership.”
“Deputies make mistakes. Police officers make mistakes. We all make mistakes,” he said. “But it’s not the responsibility of the general or the president if you have a deserter.”
The first of many failures
Israel’s statement referred to disgraced school deputy Scot Peterson, the first officer on the scene, who drew his gun but took shelter rather than rush in and confront the killer.
Israel quickly suspended Peterson without pay and launched an internal investigation. The deputy promptly retired a week after the shooting. His pension is $105,264 per year, the Sun Sentinel reported.
In interviews and news conferences, Israel made Peterson a scapegoat for what went wrong that day. He did not mention seven other deputies who arrived in the first few minutes and also failed to go in. Nor did Israel mention footage from deputies’ body cameras, including one deputy shown rummaging through his trunk for his bulletproof vest as shots rang out, then hiding behind his car.
Their performance that day revealed that the agency Israel had led for six years was unprepared for the sort of event that has become tragically common in the two decades since 12 students and a teacher were killed at Columbine High School in Colorado.
Sgt. Brian Miller, the first supervisor on the scene in Parkland, parked just off campus and stayed there for 10 minutes, doing nothing to take command.
Capt. Jan Jordan, the Parkland district chief, told deputies to establish a perimeter around the school but never ordered anyone to confront the shooter, the standard tactic against an active killer ever since Columbine.
Peterson instructed fellow officers to stay at least 500 feet away from the school. Another deputy told an officer from neighboring Coral Springs: “Don’t go in. The shooter’s right in that building there,” witness statements show.
“Deputies assigned to the Parkland district didn’t do what they should have done,” said Bob Gualtieri, sheriff of Pinellas County and chairman of a state commission investigating the shooting. “That needs to be very extensively looked at and investigated, and a determination made why. Is it because of training? Is it because of policies? Is it because of supervision? Is it because of culture? I don’t know.”
Although Israel pledges to look at his department’s shortcomings, he sidesteps blame.
“I’m certainly responsible for everything that goes on at the agency, good or bad,” he said in an interview this month with the Sun Sentinel. “I’m responsible for the response. I’m responsible for the good things that were done that day, and I’m responsible for the entire agency, for the inaction, and I certainly have suspended Deputy Peterson immediately.
“But as I’ve said before, the only person responsible for the deaths of those individuals and shooting 17 other people is the killer.”
Misstating the facts
Israel is a former Fort Lauderdale police officer and detective who rose to the rank of captain. A former Republican, he took over the Sheriff’s Office in 2013 after running as a Democrat and defeating incumbent Sheriff Al Lamberti. He’s paid $188,262 per year and sent his three children to Parkland schools, including Stoneman Douglas.
As sheriff, he brought to the office a new emphasis on social issues such as homelessness, diversity in hiring and alternatives to jail for young offenders, causing some deputies to grumble that he was neglecting basic police work.
His buoyant self-confidence — a quality that made him an effective undercover narcotics detective — came off badly in public statements after the Parkland tragedy.
“At this point, based on what I know, I don’t have any reason to believe that any members of our agency knew there was an active shooter,” Israel said last month in testimony to the state commission, nine months after the murders.
Police reports show they did.
One deputy reported hearing gunshots and then saw two students yelling “active shooter.” Another heard gunshots and ducked behind his car.
Israel followed that with another inexplicable statement.
“Peterson – not only did he not go in – but he never got on the radio and advised this agency there was an active shooter,” Israel said.
Audio and transcripts of radio communications show he did.
Less than two minutes after the shooting started, Peterson said over his radio: “I think we’ve got shots fired. Possible shots fired.”
Israel and deputies accused of failing in their duties blamed an overwhelmed radio system, saying that led to a failure of effective command.
But the radio system wasn’t failing when both Jordan and Miller had a chance to take charge. It wasn’t until more officers arrived that the system produced a busy signal — known as “bonking” or “throttling.”
The radio problems should have come as no surprise to Israel, after a crush of police officers caused it to crash during the airport shooting.
The Sheriff’s Office operates the 30-year-old radio system, but the county government owns it. Even before the airport shooting, county officials had tried to extend the system’s life instead of replacing it.
The fix didn’t come until May 2017 — five months after the airport disaster — when county commissioners approved a nearly $60 million replacement. A new system is not expected to be up and running until the end of 2019.
“As sheriff, if we had that kind of failure, I’d be screaming at the top of my lungs,” said Okaloosa County Sheriff Larry Ashley, who is on the state commission.
Other lessons from the airport
The reluctance of the Sheriff’s Office to take a hard look at its own performance showed up prior to the Parkland massacre, after a day of panic and death at Fort Lauderdale’s airport, one year before Parkland.
On Jan. 6, 2017, an arriving passenger retrieved a handgun from his luggage and shot five people to death in a baggage claim area. A deputy quickly arrested the shooter, but the scene descended into hours of chaos as unfounded reports of additional shots sent gun-waving law enforcement officers running in all directions with little supervision from commanders, and panicked passengers streamed from the terminals.
A frank internal report called for extensive reforms, including improved active-shooter training and additional planning to establish a unified command with other agencies.
A draft of the report, obtained by the Sun Sentinel with a public records request, concluded that the Sheriff’s Office failed to seize control and set up an effective command system after the shooting, leading to a cascade of mistakes — some involving the most basic police work. Confusion about who was in charge created a free-for-all as more than 2,000 law enforcement officers from multiple agencies descended on the airport, their abandoned cars blocking evacuation routes.
“Mistakes were made, lessons were learned and the self-effacement of key role players carries on, but the path to success always involves a degree of discomfort,” the report said in its conclusion.
The tough self-assessment didn’t survive into the final report, which was two-thirds shorter and stripped of dozens of recommendations — including the call for improved active-shooter training.
In place of the critical words, the report included the sort of puffery familiar to anyone who knew the sheriff.
“Through the leadership of Sheriff Israel … this tragic event was mitigated and investigated in an extraordinary manner,” it said.
In an interview this month, Israel would not discuss why the report was changed. He told the Sun Sentinel at the time of the report: “Everything was done excellently.” He described the situation as “controlled chaos.”
Critics say the report’s praise of Israel shows a defensive attitude that will hobble the agency’s ability to make necessary reforms.
“I don’t think Scott Israel has ever taken responsibility for any of BSO’s shortcomings,” said Robert Jarvis, a law professor at Nova Southeastern University who co-wrote a history of the Broward Sheriff’s Office. “That’s just who he is. This is a guy who went on national television shortly after the (Parkland) shooting and talked about what a great job he was doing.
“I would be stunned if there were changes. I expect more of the same, more circling of the wagons. It’s the history of the agency, and it fits with who Scott Israel is and what he has done to date.”
Max Schachter, whose 14-year-old son, Alex, was killed in the shooting, asked Israel during a meeting of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas commission what he did to correct “command and control” problems after the airport shooting.
The sheriff echoed the report’s glowing conclusions.
“There were no huge command and control problems,” he responded, before blaming the radio system and praising the deputy who initially pursued the airport shooter.
“I think the command and control was exceptional.”
Making excuses
Like their boss, deputies have made excuses for their failures in Parkland.
They claimed they couldn’t recall hearing gunfire or where the shots were coming from, assertions disproved by their own body cams or radio transmissions.
Deputy Edward Eason offered multiple falsehoods to explain his failure to act.
Arriving in time to hear several gunshots, he got into his car and drove away, taking a position by adjacent Westglades Middle School.
Asked by state investigators to account for his movements, he claimed he was driving toward the football field in response to reports of shots there. But there had been no such reports until 28 seconds after he headed in that direction.
Asked why he didn’t head toward the gunfire, he said, “Well, I didn’t know where they were, the gunshots.” But his own body camera showed him telling a group of civilians that he heard “a dozen at least,” as he gestured toward the campus.
Particularly painful to watch are the leisurely preparations of Deputy Josh Stambaugh, captured on his body cam.
As gunshots rang out and sirens screamed, Stambaugh pawed through his trunk and donned his bulletproof vest. Then he crouched behind his car for several minutes, with the body cam showing little but sky.
Stambaugh then got into his car and drove nearly four miles to take up a position on the Sawgrass Expressway overlooking the campus.
Stambaugh has not been disciplined. Aside from Peterson, only two people have been disciplined for their actions that day: Eason, who drove away from the school, and Miller, the sergeant who failed to take charge. Both were placed on restricted duty during internal investigations.
Eason and one other veteran deputy also fumbled tips that Cruz was threatening to shoot up a school. One received a three-day suspension and the other a written reprimand, but neither punishment was for ignoring the tips. Both deputies were punished for failing to write reports.
Insufficient training
In an interview with investigators, Stambaugh claimed he couldn’t remember the last time he took active-shooter training.
Question: 20 years ago?
Stambaugh: No, not 20 years ago.
Question: 10 years ago?
Stambaugh: I couldn’t give you a time. It was a long time ago.
In fact, Stambaugh had attended active-shooter training two years before the Parkland shooting.
The state commission investigating the shooting concluded that weak training led to many of the failures that day.
“BSO’s training was inconsistent at best and was reflected in their poor response to this active shooter event,” the commission said in a preliminary report.
In contrast, officers from Coral Springs — who rushed into the school while deputies stood by — consistently praised their training and “had no difficulty in explaining the proper response to an active shooter,” the report said. They receive training every year.
Jeff Bell, president of the Broward Sheriff’s Office Deputy Association, blamed a lack of training, a conflict between training and policy and a culture in which deputies are afraid to act for fear of making mistakes.
“When deputies are scared how much trouble they’re going to get into when they forget to turn on their body cam video before they pull a trigger, that’s the wrong mindset,” he said.
Although Israel deflected much of the criticism aimed at his agency, he took full ownership of one controversial decision: altering his agency’s active-shooter policy to say that deputies “may” rather than “shall” confront the shooter.He told the state panel investigating the shooting that he refused to require deputies to suspend their judgment and go on a “suicide mission.”
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, a member of the commission, called the change a poor decision and said in an interview that the change mattered.
“That doesn’t mean run in the front door in, as Sheriff Israel says, a ‘suicide mission,’” he said. “But it means you have to tactically and appropriately immediately respond to the threat and neutralize the threat. Everything starts with a policy. The training needs to be structured to ensure that the policy is followed.”
Israel announced this month that he has changed the policy to call for eliminating the threat first, then rescuing victims. He said it now “more closely aligns with BSO active shooter training.”
In a letter Wednesday to the state commission, Israel outlined steps the agency has taken in response to the shooting. Among them:
All deputies completed an additional eight hours of active-shooter training. All school deputies attended a week of active-shooter training and received carbines to give them more firepower.
The agency created a Threat Assessment Unit, headed by a former New York Police Department inspector. An internal committee was set up to address the commission’s finding and oversee implementation of recommendations.
“Be assured, the reforms adopted to date are not the end of this process,” Israel wrote. “Rather, they are a midway point as we continue working towards addressing all of the findings related to our agency and implementing all of the Commission’s recommendations.”
Israel’s future
Whatever steps he’s taken, Israel’s fate remains unclear. Families of victims have called on Gov. Rick Scott to suspend Israel before leaving office Jan. 8. Gov.-elect Ron DeSantis said during the campaign that he would have done so already.
“Scott Israel should have been fired very shortly afterwards,” said Steven Brown, whose son was forced to huddle against a classroom wall to avoid the killer’s gunshots. “When you have a leader who is incompetent and a liar, everyone under you follows.”
The weak response of an agency headed by a Democratic sheriff also offered an inviting target to the National Rifle Association and other conservative groups eager to shift the Parkland conversation away from gun control.
“No, Sheriff Israel you were the one that didn’t PROTECT these children and that is your job,” the NRA said in a tweet, after Israel appeared at a televised town hall meeting to support restrictions on gun ownership.
To Israel’s defenders, such statements sound like an attempt to distract attention from the ease with which the mentally disturbed shooter was able to acquire a high-capacity rifle.
“The NRA is doing this because Scott Israel had been a staunch critic of the NRA, both before the shooting and after the shooting,” said Steven Geller, a Democratic member of the Broward County Commission.
Although Geller said he was disappointed with Israel’s public praise of his own performance, he said critics have unfairly blamed the sheriff for mistakes that any agency might have made in a crisis.
“They’re trying to say we don’t need to worry about fixing lax gun laws, we don’t need to worry about putting more money into mental health, we don’t need to worry about increasing spending on school security,” he said. “It’s easier for the Republican leadership not to deal with any of those issues and just blame the Democrat in Broward County.”
Sheriff Judd, of Polk County, said there are clearly problems at the Broward Sheriff’s Office, but he sees no reason for Israel to be removed.
“Their systems need to be looked at,” he said. “But I don’t see any overt reason for the sheriff to be removed at this point in time. It’s easy for people to say ‘remove the sheriff.’ But he had a policy in place. He had training in place. … He has 4,000 or 5,000 employees working for him. That means there’s a systems weakness that needs to be improved. It’s not like he’s not done anything.”
Israel says he will read the state commission’s final report and make necessary changes at his agency.
“Our entire staff is closely examining everything, as I am,” he said. “We’re going over every aspect of the report. And we’re going to see what we need to do immediately, what we need to do over a period of time.”
But Israel, whose elected term is up in 2020, said he won’t leave office voluntarily.
“As I’ve said before, I’ve done nothing wrong,” he said. “I’m not considering resigning or anything like that. I will remain the sheriff as long as the people of Broward County want me.”
Staff Writers Megan O’Matz, John Maines and Paula McMahon contributed to this story.
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