The Broward County Sheriff’s deputy assigned to the school in Florida where 17 people were killed in February was suspended after being caught sleeping in his patrol car while he was supposed to be keeping an eye out for potential danger.
The case is the latest black mark for the sheriff’s department, which was heavily criticized in the wake of the Feb. 14 mass shooting.
After the shooting, it emerged that the deputy then assigned to the school, Scot Peterson, had refused to enter the building to try to confront the shooter.
Peterson was suspended and shortly thereafter, resigned.
Deputy Moises Carotti was supposed to take over for Peterson and exercise better judgment, but the sheriff’s office said that a sergeant patrolling inside the school was alerted by a student that he was actually sleeping in his car outside the building.
“The sergeant responded to the marked patrol vehicle, which was parked on the Northwest corner of the 1200 building,” The sheriff’s office wrote in a press release Tuesday, March 20.
“He knocked on the window to get Carotti’s attention, who appeared to be sleeping.”
Carotti was suspended with pay.
The case has renewed calls for the resignation of Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel.
Israel has also been faulted for not acting on dozens of tips about Nikolas Cruz, the alleged shooter in the February shooting.
Two deputies are under investigation for possibly not following department policies during the response to those tips.
“Of all the schools in America, you would think this would be the safest one right now,“ said Sen. Marco Rubio, (R-FL). ”This is so outrageous it’s almost impossible to believe.”
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