Florida’s new Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday suspended Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel for his handling of a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., last February, as well as his handling of the Fort Lauderale Airport shooting in 2017.
“Effective immediately, I am officially suspending Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel for his repeated failures, incompetence and neglect of duty,” DeSantis, who was sworn into office three days ago, wrote in a post to Twitter Friday evening.
The governor’s office issued an executive order of suspension that said Israel was being relieved on the grounds of “neglect of duty” and “incompetence.”
“Sheriff Israel has repeatedly failed and has demonstrated a pattern of poor leadership. He failed to protect Floridians and visitors during the tragic Fort Lauderdale International Airport shooting in 2017. He failed in his duties to keep our families and children safe during the devastating shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018. These incidents demonstrate Sheriff’s Israel’s repeated incompetence and neglect of duty,” the order stated.
Gregory Tony, a former police sergeant, was tapped as acting sheriff in Israel’s absence.
Florida’s Senate will make the final call as whether to reinstate or permanently remove Israel. Republicans control the 40-member body, making it likely they will side with the GOP governor.
DeSantis said the sheriff’s department interacted with alleged shooter Nikolas Cruz on 21 occasions, including a Feb. 2016 incident in which Cruz posted a picture with a gun and wrote, “I am going to get this gun when I turn 18 and shoot up the school.”
The governor said no one in Israel’s department who responded that day filled out an incident report, but documented “No threats noted and info forwarded to (SRO) Peterson at school.”
In the 11 months since the massacre, which left 17 students and faculty dead, Israel has been criticized for his deputy’s decision not to run inside the school while the shooter was active.
The legal document states six other deputies were within the vicinity of the school at the time of the shooting but “did not immediately move towards the gunshots to confront the shooter.”
Israel told the school’s public safety commission in November that “he wanted his deputies to exercise discretion and he did not want them engaging in ‘suicide missions.'”
Last week, the school commission released a report on the shooting, which states that those personnel’s response to the situation was “inconsistent with current and standard law enforcement practices,” according to DeSantis.
The report found Israel had told deputies they “may” confront active shooters, rather than telling them they “should.”
The order also brought up other incidents where, DeSantis said, Israel did not follow protocol.
“[A]n internal investigation into the Fort Lauderdale Airport shooting uncovered a lack of leadership by Sheriff Israel, including: a failure by Sheriff Israel to establish proper containment procedures for the crime scene, a failure by Sheriff Israel to establish a centralized command and response, a failure by Sheriff Israel to provide his deputies adequate, thorough and realistic training, and a failure by Sheriff Israel to establish an appropriate response to a mass casualty incident.”
