By a Narrow, Whisker-Thin Margin of 534-94, Broward County Deputies Vote "No Confidence" in Sheriff Scott Israel

Oooh, so close. Maybe with one or two more days to work the deputies, he could have swung two or 350 more of them in his favor.

Of course, the Broward county deputies might have reason to want to pin the maximum amount of blame on Scott Israel -- a new report says the Broward deputies cowered behind cars and trees while the Parkland shooter was killing people inside the school.

The deputies who were among the first to arrive to the scene of the Florida school massacre were found taking cover behind their cars and a nearby tree and had no idea where the gunman was, according to an official report released Tuesday.

The report from Coral Springs Officer Bryan Wilkins details how he arrived at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School within minutes of the active shooter alert -- only to find Broward County Sheriff's Officers hadn't entered the school, but were instead taking cover.

"I saw approximately four Broward County Sheriff's Office vehicles parked in the west bound lane with their personnel taking up exterior positions behind their vehicles," Wilkins wrote. "I drove up just west of the campus building 1200, exited my vehicle, grabbed my AR-15 rifle and donned on my tactical/medical gear. As I was advancing on foot through the chain-link fence, I was advised by an unknown BSO Deputy taking cover behind a tree, 'he is on the third floor.'"

I understand taking cover and even "cowering" upon first arrival at the scene -- when you don't know what's going on, it makes sense to get to a place of safety where you can stop, look, and listen, and figure out where the threat is.

However, according to the hero of this saga, when he rolled up, the Broward deputies told him where the shooter was, and continued cowering even as he, alone, marched in to confront the danger.

If they knew where the shooter was, why did they not already enter the school?

Were they waiting for the cavalry? Do they expect other cops to come in and do their jobs for them?

Apparently that's what they did in fact do -- they let a cop from another jurisdiction armor up and go into the school with his weapon while they continued taking a "wait and see" attitude about the whole mass shooting bother.

Well -- the Coral Springs cop Wilkins was joined by one Coral Springs detective and one Broward deputy.

I guess the rest were remaining outside to tell other cops coming to save their bacon where to go to confront the shooter so that they could keep protecting the cars and trees.

posted by Ace of Spades at 06:29 PM

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