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Parkland Paramedics Refused Access to School’s Wounded Six Times

Medics say police kept saying they’d “have to check” and get back to them.

Paramedics who rushed to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, were refused access six times to help wounded and dying students after Nikolas Cruz’s attack, according to a local fire and rescue chief. Michael McNally, deputy chief for Coral Springs fire-rescue, said that he asked a half-dozen times for permission to send in specialized teams of police officers and paramedics, known as Rescue Task Forces, during and after the Feb. 14 shooting—but was held off by police each time. “The Broward Sheriff’s Office incident commander advised me, ‘She would have to check,’” McNally wrote in a report released Thursday. “After several minutes, I requested once again the need to deploy RTF elements into the scene to... initiate treatment as soon as possible. Once again, the incident commander expressed that she ‘would have to check before approving this request.’” The answer remained the same after Cruz was arrested. “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 Thursday.