PARKLAND, Fla. — The chief of the Parkland district of the Broward Sheriff’s Office was “relieved of duties” Friday, the city’s Mayor Rich Walker said.
The Broward Sheriff’s Office confirmed in an email late Friday that Capt. Craig Calavetta was “removed from his assignment as district chief in Parkland.”
It is unclear why Calavetta, who has worked as the executive officer in Parkland since 2021, was removed from the post.
The removal comes a week after someone reported finding two guns at Somerset Parkland Academy to a school resource deputy on June 2. The Sheriff’s Office said last week deputies took the guns for safekeeping as they investigated how the weapons got into the school. No arrest had been made, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Walker said Sheriff Gregory Tony relayed that the Sheriff’s Office is investigating the circumstances around how the two guns ended up on the campus last Thursday and that the incident at the school is an active internal investigation.
“How it was handled, that’s going to come out,” Walker said.
The Sheriff’s Office released a statement from Tony late Friday: “Since 2019, my administration has worked diligently and relentlessly to earn the trust of our Parkland residents. The journey toward that trust required advanced training, enhanced investigative practices, policy reforms, as well as the procurement of essential tools and equipment. More importantly, it required accountability and transparency. I will not allow anyone in leadership to compromise the integrity of this office.”
The guns were unintentionally brought into the school inside of a closed box, the Florida Charter School Alliance said in an email June 3, while other items were being unloaded from the principal’s car. The guns belonged to the principal, the Sheriff’s Office said.
The school’s governing agency said the box containing the guns was locked in a room that teachers and staff did not have access to and that staff were unaware of what was inside.
It remains unclear who found the guns and reported them to the school resource deputy.
The charter school alliance’s statement said, “BSO Parkland police investigated the matter and determined there was no threat.”
“No one intended to bring a weapon into the building. The box was among many items brought into the locked room from the principal’s vehicle,” the Florida Charter School Alliance’s email said.
A voicemail left on Calavetta’s cellphone was not returned Friday evening.
Todd DeAngelis, City of Parkland spokesman, said the city will eventually pick its own chief from among Sheriff’s Office candidates, and in the meantime, the agency will appoint an interim chief.
Calavetta started his law enforcement career as a public safety officer in Parkland in 1991, according to his biography on the Sheriff’s Office’s website. He started working for the Sheriff’s Office in 1999 as a road patrol deputy in Dania Beach.
Calavetta had served as a Dania Beach detective, a member of the Tamarac District Criminal Investigations Unit and the Broward County Dive Rescue Team, the bio says, before he was promoted to sergeant in 2007.
He led the Sheriff’s Office’s Economic Crimes Unit in 2015 and was promoted to lieutenant two years later, the bio says, and was the patrol commander of the night shift in the Pompano Beach District.
Calavetta was assigned to be the Parkland executive officer in 2021 and promoted to captain that same year, according to the Sheriff’s Office website.
