Deputy fired over Florida school shooting to be reinstated with back pay: reports
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - A Florida sheriff’s sergeant who lost his job after it was discovered he hid behind his car when a shooter at a high school in Parkland first opened fire will reportedly get his job back with back pay.
Sgt. Brian Miller, of the Broward Sheriff’s Office, was the first supervisor to respond to the 2018 shooting that took the lives of 17 students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, according to the Sun-Sentinel.
An arbitration ruling this week found the sheriff’s office “violated” Miller’s “constitutional due process rights and improperly terminated him,” the BSO Deputies Association, a union that represents deputies and sergeants said, according to the Miami Herald.
Miller will also receive full back pay and get back his seniority. He made more than $137,000 in 2018.
An investigation by the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Commission found that although Miller arrived as the first shots were fired, he failed to go into the school and didn’t radio anyone for 10 minutes, The Herald reported.
“Miller failed to coordinate or direct deputies’ actions and did not direct or coordinate an immediate response into the school,” the report said. "Sergeant Miller’s actions were ineffective and he did not properly supervise the scene.”
Miller was one of four sheriff’s deputies, including Edward Eason, Joshua Stambaugh, and Scot Peterson, fired for “neglect of duty” related to the shooting.
Peterson, the deputy assigned to the school, was charged with 11 felony counts, including child neglect, for staying outside the school during the shooting and then-Sheriff Scott Israel was removed last year over the department’s handling of the shooting. He recently lost a bid for reinstatement, according to the Sun-Sentinel.
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