Florida’s new Governor Ron DeSantis has officially suspended Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel over his department’s response to the shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, Fox News is reporting:
The news followed an earlier report from the Miami Herald that the official had informed his top commanders that he’d be removed from the post as a result of his response.
17 people were killed during the February 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. The suspect was identified as Nikolas Cruz.
This comes on the heels of a federal judge who shockingly ruled that law enforcement and school districts have NO DUTY to protect students, as the Orlando Sentinel reports:
A Federal judge says Broward schools and the Sheriff’s Office had no legal duty to protect students during the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom dismissed a suit filed by 15 students who claimed they were traumatized by the crisis in February.
The suit named six defendants, including the Broward school district and the Broward Sheriff’s Office, as well as school deputy Scot Peterson and campus monitor Andrew Medina.
Bloom ruled that the two agencies had no constitutional duty to protect students who were not in custody.
“The claim arises from the actions of [shooter Nikolas] Cruz, a third party, and not a state actor,” she wrote in a ruling Dec. 12.
“Thus, the critical question the Court analyzes is whether defendants had a constitutional duty to protect plaintiffs from the actions of Cruz.
“As previously stated, for such a duty to exist on the part of defendants, plaintiffs would have to be considered to be in custody” — for example, as prisoners or patients of a mental hospital, she wrote.
