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

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel.
(Image credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

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."

CNN's new report is "based on logs of the original calls and additional records" from the department. Most of the calls did not generate a written report, but among those that did, descriptions of the issues at hand include "mentally ill person," "child/elderly abuse," "domestic disturbance," and "missing person."

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The Broward Sheriff's Office has already come under criticism for multiple deputies' alleged failure to promptly respond to Cruz's mass shooting. Israel has resisted calls to resign, claiming to have offered "amazing leadership" to his department.

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Bonnie Kristian

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.