SandyMaloneBroward County, FL – The commanding officer who made the call for responding officers to “stage,” rather than enter the high school building where a gunman was murdering students and faculty, has been identified.
FOX News reported that Broward County Sheriff’s Captain Jan Jordan was the incident commander on the scene of the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14.
The spokesperson for the Broward County Sheriff’s Office was cryptic in their responses to requests for information from FOX News.
However, they confirmed that “Capt. Jordan’s radio call sign is 17S1.”
The police dispatch log obtained by FOX News showed that “17S1” was the call sign for the incident commander at the scene of the carnage at the Parkland high school.
The log indicated police received a call at 2:23 p.m. from a female student reporting shots fired. More calls came in at 2:25 p.m. and 2:26 p.m. that identified the shooting location as “THE 1200 BUILDING,” also known as the freshman building.
At 2:26:56 p.m., the shooter was still firing, according to police who had arrived on the scene. “UNITS ADV SHOTS FIRED” the log read.
Responding officers still didn’t know where the shooter was at 2:29 p.m.
At 2:32 p.m. the dispatch log showed that the commanding officer on the scene had ordered officers on the scene to set up a perimeter around the school.
A few minutes later, the shooter’s location was still unknown. But at 2:34:48 p.m., the same commanding officer gave the order to stage on the Sawgrass side of the building, according to the dispatch log.
At 2:38 p.m., the medivac advised dispatch it wasn’t launching until the shooter was in custody.
Finally, at 2:47 p.m., 26 minutes after the shooter began his rampage that left 17 students and faculty dead, and another 14 wounded, the SWAT team entered the school building.
That was 15 minutes after the incident commander gave the order to stage, rather than sending first responders into the school to try to stop the rampage and save the dying.
Broward County law enforcement has faced much criticism and scrutiny in the wake of the tragedy.
The command to stage was itself contrary to the training the Broward County Sheriff’s deputies had received for an active shooter.
The Broward County Sheriff’s Office’s standard operating procedures manual says that a “sole deputy or a team of deputies” may enter an active shooter situation to “preserve life” without a supervisor’s approval.
The sheriff’s office did not respond to additional questions from FOX News about Capt. Jordan’s decision-making on Valentine’s Day, when 17 students and faculty lay murdered, and another 16 seriously wounded, inside the freshman classroom building at the high school.
Numerous law enforcement sources have told FOX News that Capt. Jordan’s commands to stage and set up a perimeter would have been detrimental to victims inside the building because it would have stalled officers’ from saving the victims and preventing additional loss of life.
“You cannot disregard what Sierra Unit says. They are the commanding unit,” a police source told FOX News. “When she says she needs a perimeter, every other deputy responding to the scene takes perimeter.”
The Sun-Sentinel reported that the heavily criticized Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel personally brought Capt. Jordan onto his sheriff’s department shortly after he was elected.
Jeff Bell, president of the Broward County Sheriff’s Deputies Association, called on Sheriff Israel to be transparent with information about the timeline and what exactly happened with command decisions on the day of the tragedy.
“Just come clean,” he said. “Release everything. Why not be transparent on this, so we can have the deputies stop being called cowards in public?”
The Broward County Sheriff’s Office has said it is investigating the timeline of the day of the shooting.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has said it is investigating the Broward County Sheriff’s Office.
Additionally, Florida Governor Rick Scott and Attorney General Pam Bondi have called for a full investigation of what occurred that fateful day.
The Florida Senate has also subpoenaed the Broward County Public Schools and responding law enforcement agencies for all records and information related to the Valentine’s Day carnage at the high school, FOX News reported.