Broward School Shooting Officer Faces Charges

allen griggs

Parkland officer accused of failing to confront school shooter faces trial

May 31, 2023, 6:12 AM

Jury selection is set to begin Wednesday in the trial of a former school resource officer charged with felony child neglect for allegedly failing to confront the Parkland school shooter.

Scot Peterson was assigned to Marjory Stoneman Douglas in Parkland as a school resource officer when a gunman opened fire at the South Florida high school on Feb. 14, 2018, killing 14 students and three staff members.

Peterson, 60, was terminated from his position and charged with multiple counts of child neglect in 2019 after an internal investigation found that he retreated while students were under attack.

Peterson faces up to 95 years in a state prison if convicted on all charges -- including seven counts of child neglect, three counts of culpable negligence and one count of perjury -- a Broward County judge said during a pre-trial status hearing on Tuesday.

Peterson has pleaded not guilty to all counts.

An internal probe by the Broward County Sheriff's Office found that Peterson "did absolutely nothing to mitigate the [Marjory Stoneman Douglas] shooting," according to a statement released by the agency. Surveillance video and police radio transmissions showed that as the teenage gunman opened fire inside the school's Building 12, Peterson remained outside and did not enter the school to confront the gunman.

Peterson's charges stem from the six people killed and four wounded on the third floor of Building 12, after the officer had arrived at the building. Prosecutors say that he also made a false statement, claiming that he did not hear gunfire.

During Tuesday's status hearing at a Fort Lauderdale courthouse, attorneys debated whether the jury should see the third floor; the defense argued that being in the building is "traumatizing" and that the prejudicial effect would be "extraordinary," while the state maintained that jurors should be allowed to because all but one of the charges emanated from what happened there.

The judge said he plans to issue a written order on the matter by June 5.

Peterson had been a sheriff's deputy in Broward County for more than 30 years until he was terminated from his position when the criminal complaint was filed against him in June 2019.

A the time of his arrest, legal experts called the charges unprecedented. The move was largely applauded by the Parkland community, with the parent of one teen who was killed on the third floor calling Peterson a "coward."

The gunman, Nikolas Cruz, a former student at the high school, was sentenced to life in prison last year after pleading guilty to 17 counts of first-degree murder and 17 counts of attempted first-degree murder.

bpost

He is a coward, he was happy to collect the pay and not do the job when he was called upon to do it. Jail him for 30 years and make an example of him.

Grasshopper

NOT playing keyboard commando here but I could not "stand by" if I knew there was a shooter in the building killing kids and teachers. I really don't think I could do that. For him, living with that has to be on your soul, I would think.

kannoneer

They just had the wrong man for the job, that's all. When he took the job, he never suspected something like this would happen. School resource cops generally just take care of fights and such in the school. I guess. When I was in school having a cop on duty was inconceivable.

Ditch-Runner

He obvious was a coward and decided in his mind he was going home that day I was not their and only think what I would have or should have done but when such dramatic things happen people react different

I doubt he will get or at least serve any jail time over it but he still has to live with his actions for the rest of his life

Truly Sad people ,well kids died and he could have saved at least some of them

but how many LEO'S have been filmed ignoring people breaking laws maybe not to the same degree but allowing looting beatings, breaking and entering, arson and riots and distrucyion of privite amd goverment property to name a few and just stand by watching not arresting any one

yet no charges filed on them for not preforming their duty

Breaking the law is still breaking the law

His lawyers will say he panicked maybe had a moment of mental disorder or similar issue that prevented him from acting on the crime

fearing for his life at 60 yrs old he was not mentally prepared or expecting to possibly die that day And his brain just froze in panic and fear

he was Completey Over come with fear he just Could not handle it and just shut down

allen griggs

I bet that cop was a real tiger when he caught a ninth grade kid with a nickel bag of pot. I bet he cuffed him up and radioed for the paddy wagon.

But when it came time to save lives of children he was not available for duty. Coward.

He needs a couple years of jail time, and revocation of his pension. I read several years ago his pension is $108K a year.

Kevin_L

I suppose I’d be a tiny bit more forgiving if he’d own the mistakes he made rather than giving BS statements to cover his butt. That’s the true cowardice right there.

While I have no idea how I’d react in such a situation, I expect a trained and ready LEO to do his job, go forth, and stop the shooter. Maybe that’s too much to expect. Some of you with law enforcement or military experience would know better than me.

Ambrose

It has been officially ruled that cops have NO duty to protect. A good example was the Columbine school shooting. The SQUAT team arrived while shots were being fired and hid behind a fire truck--one team member even had a kid of his own inside and still hid. A teacher had been serverely wounded and some students, baracaded in a classroom, were trying to save him. When the shooting stopped and the cops finally got to them, the students were going to carry the teacher out. The cops forced the students to leave the teacher behind--he died! No charges were filed.

It seems Peterson was following standard procedure: Waiting for "backup".

Wild Turkey

Who was it that left a suspect in a room with their gun and one bullet?

tsavo303

seppuku

allen griggs

Good one tsavo.

"I cannot live with this shame. I will use the long sword."

Seppuku it would be, if he were a Japanese warrior. That's what is so pitiful about this story, the Broward Coward CAN live with the shame, on a fat $108K pension. Probably sleeps well at night.

truthful

School Resource Officers (SROs) are not guards. They are there to establish a police presence and establish rapport between students and officialdom. Some may not even be armed. Very often, SROs travel a circuit from school to school, a circuit that often is very predictable. The positions are often manned by lower-rated officers, frequently those putting in a few more years prior to retirement. Their training is generally "old school", ie, "establish a perimiter and call for backup," not post-Columbine active-shooter training.