The Florida sheriff’s captain who oversaw the initial response to February’s Parkland high school massacre resigned Tuesday and the first sergeant to arrive at the scene has been suspended over what other law enforcement officials saw as their inaction during the initial minutes after the first shots were fired.
The Broward Sheriff’s Office announced that Capt. Jan Jordan resigned and Sgt. Brian Miller was placed on paid suspension pending an internal investigation. He was ordered to surrender his gun, badge and car and not to perform any law enforcement duties.
Jordan oversaw the city of Parkland on Feb. 14 when a gunman killed 17 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Law enforcement officers told investigators she appeared to be in a trance-like state and overwhelmed as she tried to direct the initial response to the attack.
Miller arrived at the school during the shooting but video shows he stayed outside the parking lot until long after the massacre ended, even as other law enforcement officers entered the building.
At the request of a state commission investigating the massacre, the sheriff’s office had not conducted its own probe into its deputies’ actions. An investigator for the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission gave a report last week that was heavily critical of both.
Sheriff Scott Israel had no comment on Jordan’s resignation, but said after reviewing the commission’s report he felt it “prudent” to relieve Miller of duty. Israel has also been heavily criticized by the parents of some slain students, who have called on Gov. Rick Scott to suspend him from office. Scott has refused.
The Broward Deputies Association, which represents patrol officers like Miller, did not immediately return a call for comment Tuesday.
…