Sheriff Scott Israel is speaking out for the first time to NewsRadio 610 WIOD following the Valentine's Day shooting at a Parkland High School, MSDHS Resource Officer Scot Patterson's resignation, and the beginning of an investigation into the Broward Sheriff's Office response to the shooting by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Israel joined WIOD's Jimmy Cefalo Wednesday morning via phone call from the scene of there massacre, where students were also returning to class for the first time since the shooting.
"Right now I'm up at Stoneman Douglas High School, and my entire focus is on the families of the 17 victims that were murdered, the 16 victims injured.." said the sheriff. "That and ensuring that we present the state attorney's office with an iron-clad case against this killer [Nikolas Cruz]."
You can hear the entire interview here:
Regarding the investigation, Israel said "As you know... the governor's called for the FDLE to investigate our response [to the Feb. 14th shooting masacre]. I welcome that investigation. We're going to respect the process and wait for the results."
It has been made clear that Israel will not step down as sheriff, despite a call by 73 Republican Florida lawmakers demanding that he be removed from office. The lawmakers made their demand in a letter to Gov. Rick Scott.
“We will find the truth,” said Israel. “If the deputies did nothing wrong, then we move forward. If the deputies made mistakes, I’ll act accordingly and handle it appropriately as I did with former Deputy Peterson.”
The sheriff has also received thousands of supportive messages from the community.
But there’s a growing number of people arguing that it’s inexcusable that Israel’s department missed warning signs about the teenage shooter.
Twenty-three calls were allegedly made to BSO about the gunman.