FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) - The Latest on School Shooting-Florida (all times local):
11:35 a.m.
A Florida detective says the former deputy entrusted to protect a high school where 17 people died in a mass shooting gave an initial statement filled with inaccuracies about his actions.
Broward Sheriff’s Office Detective John Curcio told investigators that ex-deputy Scot Peterson’s story about what happened at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland contains many inconsistencies when compared with video evidence.
Curcio is the lead investigator in the criminal case against 20-year-old Nikolas Cruz. His statement released Tuesday was given to Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents working with a state commission looking into the law enforcement response to the Feb. 2018 mass shooting.
The commission has found Peterson was derelict in his duty for not confronting the gunman. FDLE also has launched a criminal investigation into the response. Peterson’s lawyer declined comment.
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10 a.m.
A Florida judge has denied an effort by defense attorneys to hold the Broward Sheriff’s Office in contempt of court for releasing suspect Nikolas Cruz’s medical records to a state investigative commission.
The order dated Tuesday by Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer says the records release was limited, not done in bad faith and was an isolated incident. Scherer also says the sheriff’s office may not have been aware of restrictions she had placed on the records.
Cruz’s medical records were provided last summer to the commission created to investigate the February 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in which 17 people were killed. They have not been made public.
Twenty-year-old Cruz faces the death penalty. His lawyers have offered a guilty plea in return for life in prison.
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7:45 a.m.
A California man is accused of using Instagram to “harass and intimidate” the families of students killed in a mass shooting at a Florida high school.
A criminal complaint filed in federal court says Brandon Fleury of Santa Ana, California, began the taunts Dec. 22 using different accounts which were traced to an IP address in Santa Ana, where Fleury lives with his father and brother. He was arrested Friday.
Special Agent Cameron McDowell wrote in a 12-page report filed Friday that Fleury showed no remorse when questioned Jan. 16. He admitted to fascination with the Feb. 14 shooting that killed 17 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Fleury’s father, Patrick Fleury, told the SunSentinel it was a “bunch of nonsense” and declined to say whether his son has a lawyer.
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