Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel vehemently denied to National Rifle Association spokesperson Dana Loesch on Wednesday during CNN's Town Hall on the tragic shootings at Stoneman Douglas High School that police were called to the home of the shooter, Nikolas Cruz, thirty-nine times. He claimed that it was reported inaccurately. How, he didn't say.
The following video of his denial reveals the extent of the sheriff's anger on that topic. As we shall see, his denial of those many visits to the Cruz house comes off as petulantly ridiculous because it had been widely reported on, including by CNN.
DANA LOESCH: Thirty-nine visits, assaulting students, assaulting parents, taking bullets and knives to school, did that not meet that standard?
BROWARD SHERIFF SCOTT ISRAEL: Well, which -- which -- which are you speaking about specifically? You seem to know about all 39.
LOESCH: Well there's -- I know there's one Florida statute where if he's sending messages... If he's sending messages threatening to kill people, that right now under Florida state law --
ISRAEL: Who did he send the message to kill people to?
LOESCH: Buzzfeed, AP, Reuters, YahooNews, all reported that to other students --
ISRAEL: What -- who is the victim? Reuters can't be a victim. The only person that can be a victim is an individual.
LOESCH: Sheriff is what I'm saying.
ISRAEL: So if an individual was threatened and it was real, that's a crime. But these posting things --
LOESCH: Yes, they were threatened with death. They were threatened that they were going to bleed. They were threatened that they were going to be killed.
ISRAEL: Well what's your specific case?
LOESCH: And he had already taken bullets and knives to school. He had already assaulted people. He assaulted his parent. He assaulted other students. Thirty-nine visits and this was -- known to the -- to the intelligence and law enforcement community.
ISRAEL: You're --
LOESCH: Now I'm not -- look I'm not saying that you can be everywhere at once, but this is what I'm talking about. We have to follow up on these red flags.
ISRAEL: You're not the litmus test. You're absolutely not the litmus test for how law enforcement should follow up. You're wrong. There weren't 39 visits. Some of them, they were GOA. Some of them called from other states, some say there were 39 visits I don't know where you go those facts, but you're completely wrong.
LOESCH: Media. Did they report it inaccurately?
ISRAEL: Yes, they reported it inaccurately.
We are still waiting for Sheriff Israel to point out how it was reported inaccurately. He says there weren't 39 visits. Okay, Sheriff, was it 38 or 37 visits? Even just a dozen visits should have raised red flags. As to where Loesch got her facts that the sheriff wondered about, it was from several sources including CNN which hosted the event where the sheriff made his astounding denial. Here is the CNN report about the many visits to the Cruz house:
Documents obtained by CNN show that law enforcement officers responded to Cruz's house on 39 occasions over a seven-year period. No police reports were immediately available for those calls so it was not possible to determine whether Cruz was involved.
Will the news media now question the Broward County Sheriff about how exactly he thinks the report of 39 visits to the Cruz house was inaccurate?
