The police captain who told sheriff’s deputies to ‘stage’ and form a perimeter outside Stoneman Douglas High School as students and teachers were shot inside on February 14 has been named and pictured.
Jan Jordan, 49, was in charge of deputies who responded to the first calls of the shooting in Parkland, Florida, last month, according to police sources.
The 27-year force veteran was issuing commands from her radio.
At 2.32pm, ten minutes after the first call to police that shots had been fired, the following command came from Jordan’s radio: ‘NEED PERIMETER’.
It was included in the police log from the day with her radio call sign, 17 Sierra 1.
Jan Jordan, 49, was in charge of deputies who responded to the first calls of the shooting in Parkland, Florida, last month, according to police sources
Jordan has not spoken out since the shooting to confirm that it was her who sent the signal and Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel will not speak of it either.
Sources cited however said it was indeed her who gave the command and that it may have cost lives.
The order goes against the sheriff’s department’s policy to immediately enter the site of a shooting until the suspect is in custody.
When questioned over the command, a Broward County Sheriff’s spokesman claimed she was ‘asking’ if a perimeter had been set up and not ordering for one to be put in place.
They said the command came after gunman Nikolas Cruz had left the building but there is no evidence that she knew he was no longer inside at the time she sent it.
BSO policy says that law enforcement may enter the scene and pursue an active shooter without waiting to be given orders to do so, in order to save a life
Fifteen minutes after the staging command was given, the first SWAT teams entered the school and began evacuating students
‘Captain Jordan asked if a perimeter had been established after the shooter left the building,’ the spokesman told Fox News.
The SWAT team entered the school at 2.47pm, 15 minutes after the ‘need perimeter’ command was issued.
It was not until 3.02pm that the first mention of the gunman leaving the school was made.
’20 MIN DELAY FROM CAMERA HE EXITED THE BUILDING RUNNING SOUTH’ it said.
Jordan, 49, has been with the Broward County Sheriff’s Office since 2012
Jordan was hired by Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel when he was elected in 2012.
Beforehand, she spent decades working for police in Fort Lauderdale and she also worked briefly in Colorado.
She has not spoken about her involvement in the shooting.
When approached by an ABC reporter last week, she said: ‘I don’t have any comments. Sorry, sir.’
When it emerged last week that officers had been told not to go in immediately, one law enforcement source told Fox News the decision may have cost lives.
‘It’s atrocious. If deputies were staging it could have cost lives,’ they said.
The Broward County Sheriff’s Office has come under intense scrutiny over its handling of the massacre which killed 17 and left another 16 injured.
School resource officer Scot Peterson, who worked for the department, resigned last month after it was revealed that he stayed outside as other officers went in to find Cruz, 19.
Peterson’s actions were slammed as cowardly by a wave of critics which included President Trump himself.
Last week, the House Public Integrity & Ethics Committee this week issued subpoenas to the Broward Sheriff’s Office, the Broward School Board, Coral Springs and Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office for an investigation into the multi-agency response to the shooting.
Cruz fled the school in a crowd of students by pretending to be one of them. He was arrested later
Sheriff Scott Israel is facing intense scrutiny over his department’s handling of the shooting