A new report citing a source close to the Broward County Sheriff’s Office claims deputies were told not to enter Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School during the Feb. 14 shooting unless their body cameras were on, possibly explaining why as many as four deputies were reportedly outside when other first responders arrived.
The source spoke to producers on Fox News‘ The Ingraham Angle, where Laura Ingraham was already describing the widespread criticism of Sheriff Scott Israel and the rest of the Broward County Sheriff’s Office.
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“Our sources near the Broward County Sheriff’s Department are telling us that the deputies who arrived at the scene of the shooting were told not to enter the school unless their body cameras were turned on,” Ingraham said on Monday night. “And then, we found out that the deputies did not have body cameras. So, they did not enter the building, or engage the shooter.”
“Curiously, the police also lost radio communications during the Parkland shooting,” Ingraham went on. “Our source claims that radio communication also went dead during the Fort Lauterdale Airport shooting in 2017, that he also got a lot of criticism for.”
Several officers from the neighboring Coral Springs Police Department have told reporters that when they arrived on the scene, deputies from Broward County were standing outside. They claim that they were the first to enter the school after the shooting.
Up to this point, Sheriff Israel has maintained that he doesn’t know the truth of these allegations, but says that he’s investigating them to the fullest extent. He’s received criticism from all sides, as he was lambasted during a recent appearance on CNN’s State of the Union with Jake Tapper. His department reportedly had 23 recorded interactions with the confessed shooter, Nikolas Cruz, before he carried out the Valentine’s Day massacre.
On Ingraham’s show, she seemed particularly concerned with his support of the Stoneman Douglas High survivors, who have channeled their grief into a call for new gun control legislation. Her show reportedly obtained an internal e-mail from the Broward County Sheriff’s Department, which she read on air.
“As the moment we find our agency up against a flurry of media allegations and a personal attack against our Sheriff, SI stood with us now and we must stand with him,” the email read. “It’s important that they know we ‘stand as one’ during this difficult time.”
