The county sheriff in charge of investigating the mass school shooting in Parkland, Florida, pleaded with lawmakers on Thursday to give police and doctors more power to involuntarily hospitalize people for psychiatric evaluation over violent and threatening social media posts.
The sheriff, Scott Israel, of Broward County, described the accused shooter’s social media posts as “very disturbing” at a news conference and asked state and federal legislators to expand the state’s Baker Act, which says a person can be detained against their will for up to 72 hours under certain circumstances. Continue reading “Sheriff in Florida shooting calls for power to detain over social media”