A deputy was suspended this week after he was found sleeping during the time he was supposed to be patrolling Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
Around 5 p.m. Monday, a student alerted a sergeant patrolling the interior of the high school that Broward County Deputy Moises Carotti was asleep in a marked patrol car, according to a statement from the Broward County Sheriff’s Office. Seventeen people were killed last month in a mass shooting at the school.
The sergeant then located the patrol car parked outside and knocked on the window to get Carotti’s attention, as he appeared to be asleep. Another deputy was sent to replace Carotti, who had been assigned to patrol the north perimeter of the school.
Carotti was suspended with pay on Tuesday, pending an internal affairs investigation.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) called the incident “outrageous.”
“Of all the schools in America, you would think this would be the safest one right now,” Rubio said Tuesday in the statement. “This is so outrageous it’s almost impossible to believe.”
Deputies had arrested Zachary Cruz, the 18-year-old brother of the suspect in last month’s shooting at the school, for trespassing on the school’s property about 30 minutes before Carotti was found asleep. School officials had warned Cruz to stay away from the school, but he said he decided to skateboard through the campus to “reflect on the school shooting and to soak it in,” according to the arrest affidavit.
Carotti’s alleged on-duty nap is the latest in a string of embarrassments for the Broward Couny Sheriff’s Office.
Scot Peterson, the deputy assigned to the high school as its school resource officer, resigned last month after it was reported that he did not enter the school during the massacre and did not engage with the shooter.
Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel has also been criticized, both for his office’s response to the shooting and for how authorities handled numerous reports of concern they received from community members about the suspected Parkland gunman in the years leading up to the shooting.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) stated Tuesday that he wanted armed law enforcement officers at every entry of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and offered to send Florida Highway Patrol officers to assist if needed.
On Tuesday, a sophomore from the high school was arrested for making a threat on social media. Two other students were arrested in separate, unrelated incidents for bringing knives into the school, according to the sheriff’s office.