"As I was advancing on foot through the chain-link fence, I was advised by an unknown BSO Deputy taking cover behind a tree, 'he is on the third floor," Coral Springs Officer Bryan Wilkins wrote in a police report.
The documents, first reported by the Miami Herald earlier today and also obtained by New Times, paint a damning portrait of BSO's actions that day. While Broward Sheriff Scott Israel has cast much of the blame on a single deputy — Stoneman Douglas High School Resource Officer Scot Peterson — the reports suggest multiple BSO deputies knew Cruz was inside the school but did not rush in to confront the shooter.
The newly disclosed documents confirm previous reports from CNN and the Herald, which suggested BSO deputies waited outside Douglas High while Cruz was inside. According to a BSO dispatch log the Herald previously obtained, BSO Capt. Jan Jordan ordered deputies to form a "perimeter" outside the school while Cruz was shooting students and teachers inside.
BSO directives say deputies who arrive on-scene must first and foremost attempt to confront an active shooter. In a February news conference castigating Peterson, Sheriff Israel said he was "sick to [his] stomach" that the school's armed guard allegedly did nothing to stop Cruz from committing a massacre.
But the new reports suggest the problems might not have stopped with Peterson. Coral Springs' Officer Wilkins wrote he received word from a fire-rescue employee at 2:28 p.m. that there was an active shooter in Parkland. After receiving confirmation over
Wilkins then wrote that he grabbed an AR-15 rifle, strapped on a tactical vest, and exited his car. As he reached a chainlink fence, he said, he then encountered an unknown BSO deputy who told him that he believed Cruz was on the building's third floor.
Wilkins said he then linked up with CSPD Det. Gil Monzon, and the pair advanced toward the school building, where they noticed numerous bullet holes and at least one person lying on the ground outside. Wilkins said he checked for vital signs and found none.
Wilkins, Monzon, and another BSO deputy then entered the building, but Wilkins wrote that it was extremely difficult to make out what was happening inside due to "billowing smoke." Wilkins wrote that he smelled a "strong odor" of gunpowder in the air and noticed multiple bodies lying on the ground before he was advised to go outside. He began tending to other injured victims.
In separate reports, fellow CSPD Officer Scott Myers said that when he and