Parkland paramedics were denied entry to the school after shooting

During the chaos of the Parkland school shooting, paramedics from Coral Springs-Parkland Fire Department were desperate to go inside the building where students were wounded and dying.

Michael McNally, deputy chief for Coral Springs fire-rescue, asked six times for permission to send in specialized teams of police officers and paramedics, according to an incident report he filed after the Feb. 14 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting that left 17 people dead.

But every time McNally asked to deploy the two Rescue Task Force teams — each made up of three paramedics and three to four law enforcement officers — the Broward Sheriff's Office captain in charge of the scene, Jan Jordan, said no.

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"The [BSO] incident commander advised me, 'She would have to check,' " McNally wrote in the report released Thursday by Coral Springs.

Even after the shooter had been arrested, the answer remained the same.

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The special RTF teams allow paramedics to treat victims under the protection of police officers in situations where a shooter has been pinned down or fled but has not necessarily been captured.

SWAT medics went in instead, although it's not clear exactly how many or when.

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At one point, commanders were relying on school security footage that showed Cruz still in the freshman building. But the footage was — unknown to them — running on a 20-minute delay. Cruz had actually fled roughly six minutes after opening fire at 2:21 p.m.

"I’m not saying the [RTFs] would have made a difference and I’m not saying they wouldn’t have made a difference, but it would have been more medics and more hands helping out," Coral Springs Fire Chief Frank Babinec said in an interview Thursday.

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After Cruz's arrest off campus at 3:40 p.m. — when it would have been safe for RTFs to operate — McNally said he again asked Jordan to deploy the special teams. Again, she refused.

Babinec, the Coral Springs chief, said by that time all patients had been treated so there would have been nothing for the teams to do.

  Miami Herald