A Florida judge has denied a risk protection order for an 18-year-old teen who brought a loaded gun to school. The Polk County Sheriff’s Office is trying to appeal the judge’s decision.
In May 2022, Terrance Broome Jr., 18, brought the loaded gun and 43 rounds to Kathleen High School in Lakeland, according to Polk County deputies. He was apprehended, but Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said that didn’t go far enough.
The sheriff asked for a risk protection order, which would have prohibited Broome from having a firearm for at least a year. However, Chief Judge Ellen Masters of the Tenth Circuit denied Judd’s request, saying there was insufficient evidence that Broome posed a threat.
“I need to underscore that we have no evidence that he was going to shoot up the school. None,” Judd told FOX 13. “But we have no evidence that he wasn’t.”
Now, the sheriff’s office is appealing the judge’s decision. This is presumably the first time the state’s risk protection law, which was passed after the Parkland school shooting back in 2018, is being appealed.
The vast majority of requests for risk protection orders in Polk County, 87%, have been approved. In Hillsborough County, a judge recently approved a request for a risk protection order for 18-year-old Corey Anderson, who held up two fake guns on social media, and asked Siri where the closest school was located.
Since the request for a risk protection order was granted, Broome cannot buy a real gun for a year. After that, the order can be extended.
“When you get a risk protection order, it is not required to show that the defendant or the respondent, has a gun, or possesses a gun,” said defense attorney Anthony Rickman. “What law enforcement has to show is that the respondent through his actions, his words, his threats, pose a threat if he were to get a gun.”
So it all seems to hinge on what poses a threat, and that, according to Judd, is still unclear, until the Broome case is decided.
“It will absolutely create case law. It may broaden the authority of the risk protection order, it may narrow the scope of the risk protection order, It may, what we hope, better define what is meant by the specific words of a threat,” said Judd.
