The Broward Sheriff's Office reported receiving 23 calls warning about the Parkland shooter's family. It was actually 45.

(Image credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

published 27 February 2018

The Broward County Sheriff's Department reported receiving 23 calls about the family of Nikolas Cruz, the confessed shooter in the Feb. 14 attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. But CNN reported Tuesday the number was actually nearly double that count, totaling 45 warnings about Cruz and his younger brother.

A previous CNN story said the figure was 39, which Broward Sheriff Scott Israel vehemently denied. "Since 2008, BSO responded to 23 incidents where previous contact was made with the killer or his family," his office said in a statement Saturday. "STOP REPORTING 39; IT'S SIMPLY NOT TRUE."

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.

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