“Democratic senators who voted to reinstate suspended Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel should be ashamed of themselves for acting in favor of partisan politics,” the brother of a Parkland shooting victim, Hunter Pollack, told ‘Fox & Friends’ on Wednesday.
Pollack, whose sister was among the 17 people killed in the deadly Parkland school shooting, told the news that had it not been for Israel’s incompetence, her sister could be alive today and condemned the Democrats in the state legislature who are fighting for Israel’s reinstatement.
“The sheriff has lied on multiple occasions. There was a magnitude of failures,” he said. “I hope the Florida Senate does the right thing and upholds the suspension today.”
The Florida State Senate is to decide former sheriff Israel’s fate on Wednesday, who is fighting for his job after being ousted from his duty following the Parkland school shooting.
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended Israel shortly after taking office in January, almost one year after the shooting. He and other’s cited what they called Israel’s failure to properly investigate threats made by the shooter prior to the rampage.
Pollack said the deputies who waited to enter the school showed cowardice and blamed Israel for instilling a culture of ineptitude in the sheriff’s office.
“While shots were ringing out, deputies were taking time to put on their bulletproof vests and hiding behind concrete walls,” Pollack said. “But this is the culture that Scott Israel created in the Broward sheriff’s office. I say, my sister became a victim of his deadly incompetence.”
“Eight deputies were outside while shots were being fired,” Pollack added. “Something I’m so disgusted about the last few days is Florida Sen. Lauren Book, someone who has served on the MSD commission. She knew all the facts, watched my sister get murdered, but still voted to reinstate Sheriff Israel. She sold out the community of Broward county and put our children at risk.”
Pollack also claimed that the four Broward county senators were laughing as parents were begging for a vote against Israel’s reinstatement.
“Gary Farmer, Perry Thurston, Oscar Braynon, they were laughing. They were eating candy while these parents are begging them, ‘Please vote in our favor,'” he said. “To these Broward senators, it was just a joke.”
According to Fox News, the committee voted 9-7 along party lines not to reinstate Israel, with each Democrat voting in favor of Israel and each Republican voting against him.
The final decision is to be made on Wednesday by the full Florida Senate.
