Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi on Monday said members of the Broward County Sheriff’s Office have not been honest about why deputies failed to enter Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to engage accused school shooter Nikolas Cruz on February 14.
On Fox News’ “Fox & Friends,” Bondi wouldn’t say whether she knew if a “stand-down” order had been issued, keeping law enforcement officers standing idly outside while the gunman was inside the building gunning down students. But she did say she knows a lot more about the matter than the general public does.
Asked if she thought that Sheriff Scott Israel was an “amazing leader” as he stated on CNN Sunday, Bondi replied, “No! Of course not.” She added that Florida Governor Rick Scott has called for a “full investigation into the matter.”
Bondi said, “I know a lot more than you all do now, so all I’m going to say is, yes, I believe there needs to be a full investigation. I don’t think some people were honest and we’re going to investigate this in Florida, and the right thing will be done.”
Asked if there was a stand-down order, Bondi replied, “I can’t talk about that.”
“Let me put it this way. When you have a school full of students. And your duty is to protect those students — if I was there and I didn’t have a firearm, I would have gone into that scene,” Bondi said. “That’s what the coach did, who was a true hero.”
Asked about reports that there were three other deputies on the scene, Bondi again pointed out that people in the department were not being honest. “That’s what we’re hearing and I can tell you I believe some folks in that department weren’t honest with me, nor were they honest with the governor — so there’s going to be a full investigation into what really went on,” she said.
When asked why they would not be honest, Bondi said “that’s all going to come out in the investigation.” Pressed for more information, she answered, “Well, if they were there and didn’t want people to know they were there, that could have been it. But I’m not going to discuss further.”
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