Judge sides with 2 cops fired over Parkland school shooting, says they should get jobs back
Two Florida cops who were fired for their inaction during the 2018 Parkland school shooting should indeed get their jobs back, a judge ruled Thursday.
The canned cops, Brian Miller and Josh Stambaugh, were both reinstated last year after arbitrators ruled they were improperly terminated.
The Broward Sheriff’s Office appealed those decisions to Broward Circuit Court, but Judge Keathan Frink upheld the reinstatements, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported.
Miller and Stambaugh got their jobs back on technicalities. Florida law says that an officer must be disciplined within 180 days of a completed investigation. Miller was fired 182 days after the department’s Parkland investigation finished, and Stambaugh was canned 11 days after Miller.
The investigation found Miller, the first supervisor to arrive at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018, did not take command of the situation and instead cowered behind a car for 10 minutes while Nikolas Cruz, then 19, murdered 17 students and faculty members.
Investigators said Stambaugh, who was off-duty nearby when Cruz started shooting, heard the call of shots fired and drove to the school. Once there, however, he cowered behind his truck for five minutes before driving away from the school to a highway.
Both cops will receive years of back pay and expected overtime, according to the Sun Sentinel.
Several relatives of the victims were furious at the judge’s ruling.
“We don’t get to bring back the children who were murdered on a technicality,” Andy Pollack, whose daughter Meadow was killed, told the Sun Sentinel.
The arbitration case of a third fired officer, Edward Eason, has not yet been decided. A fourth terminated cop, Scot Peterson, is facing felony charges.
Cruz’s trial has not yet begun.
