10 Truths

1. BSO wrongly claimed the shooter could not have been arrested for a crime prior to the shooting. Broward police visited the shooter’s home dozens of times. The shooter threatened classmates, posted photos of himself holding guns, made violent statements online, and was repeatedly described to authorities as a potential “school shooter.” The shooter’s threats could have constituted aggravated cyberstalking, a felony, and could have prevented him from possessing the weapon he used to kill 17 people.
   Authored by David Ovalle, Sarah Blaskey and Nicholas Nehamas, Shooter could have faced charges before massacre—had cops done their job, experts say
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2. FBI protocols were not followed when tips about threats by shooter were not forwarded to the Miami field office. Five weeks prior to the shooting, the FBI received a tip that the shooter had a gun, a desire to kill people, exhibited erratic behavior, and had disturbing social media posts. The tip also specifically mentioned that the shooter had the potential to carry out a school shooting. Under FBI protocol, that information should have been assessed as a potential life threat and forwarded to the FBI’s Miami office for investigation. But it was not. Nothing happened.
   Authored by Laurel Wamsley, FBI Received a Tip Last Month About Florida Shooting Suspect—But Nothing Was Done
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3. The Florida Department of Children and Families determined the shooter was at low risk of harming himself or others despite violent social media posts including expressing interest in buying a gun. The agency closed its investigation of the shooter after only two months, deciding that the “final level of risk was low”—an analysis that one of the shooter’s school counselors considered premature.
   Authored by Audra D.S. Burch, Frances Robles and Patricia Mazzei, Florida Agency Investigated Nikolas Cruz After Violent Social Media Posts
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4. In 2016, the shooter’s neighbors called BSO to report that the shooter planned to shoot up a school and had posted pictures of himself on social media posing with guns. The information was passed on to the school resource officer at Stoneman Douglas but nothing was done. The shooter remained at the school for another year before he was transferred out for threatening other students.
   Authored by Ruth Brown, Disgraced deputy ignored tip about school massacre
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5. BSO policy was violated when the sole school resource officer failed to engage the shooter and further delayed the response by ordering officers to stay at least 500 feet away from the shooting site. BSO’s active shooter policy calls for deputies to interrupt the shooting and search for victims when there is a ceasefire. The school resource officer claimed he did not enter the school because he thought the gunfire was coming from outside the building, but his own words on dispatch audio contradict that assertion.
   Authored by Rosa Flores, Mayra Cuevas and Nicole Chavez, Radio errors caused confusion for police responding to Parkland shooting
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   Authored by David Ovalle, Charles Rabin, David Smiley and Carli Teproff, Disgraced Parkland deputy heard shots inside school building, told cops to stay away
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6. Broward County School District security cameras did not show real-time video for police, complicating their efforts to track and pin down the shooter. The video was on at least a 20-minute delay. Officers thought they were seeing the shooter live on the security cameras still in the school building, but they were actually seeing images tape delayed. The school superintendent stated there wasn’t any reason for the school to have a video system on delay.
   Authored by Lisa J. Huriash, Stephen Hobbs and Megan O’Matz, Video delays misled cops at Stoneman Douglas shooting
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7. Police communication at the shooting scene was hampered by outmoded radios that left some transmissions inaudible. Broward County’s radio system is over 25 years old.
   Authored by Lisa J. Huriash, Stephen Hobbs and Megan O’Matz, Video delays misled cops at Stoneman Douglas shooting
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8. Funding for Florida’s Safe Schools program for safety and security has dropped 25% per student since 2002-03, despite the threat of mass shootings rising and school enrollment increasing by more than 300,000 students over the same span. There was a grand total of one school resource officer on the Stoneman Douglas campus which has 3,200 students. The campus is like a mini-college and if you are on one side of the campus it takes minutes to get to the other side. The shooting at the school killing 17 people lasted only five minutes. Broward County received nearly $6 million this academic year from the Safe Schools program. While statewide school districts spent more than 80% of those funds on school resource officers, Broward was an exception, devoting less than half the money on officers.
   Authored by Joseph Ax, Easy fixes to school security prove elusive after Florida shooting
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   Authored by Andrew Atterbury Florida lawmakers repeatedly denied pleas for more school-safety money
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9. There are more public mass shootings in the United States than in any other country in the world. While the U.S. comprises less than 5% of the world’s population, it produces nearly a third of its mass shooters.
   Authored by Kara Fox, How US gun culture compares with the world in five charts
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10. In Florida, an AR-15, one of the weapons of choice for mass killers, is easier to buy than a handgun. There is no waiting period for an AR-15. Gunmen used AR-15s in five of the last six deadliest mass shootings in the United States in the last six years. Bullets fly out of an AR-15 more than twice as fast as most handguns. A gunman can fire more than 100 rounds in minutes.
    Authored by Julie Turkewitz, Patricia Mazzei and Audra D.S. Burch, Suspect Confessed to Police That He Began Shooting ‘in the Hallways’
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