Scot Peterson was arrested in June 2019 on almost a dozen prison prices for taking cowl as an alternative of confronting the expelled highschool pupil who gunned down 14 college students and three workers members inside the highschool’s 1200 constructing on February 14, 2018. Peterson was charged with seven counts of felony youngster neglect and three counts of culpable negligence for “knowingly and willingly” failing to behave “pursuant to his regulation enforcement coaching and sworn duties.”
He additionally confronted a perjury cost for allegedly mendacity to investigators in regards to the variety of gunshots he heard whereas arriving on the scene and whether or not he noticed individuals fleeing from the constructing the place the taking pictures occurred.
After 4 days of deliberations, jurors delivered their resolution on the afternoon of June 29: not responsible.
Gasps broke out within the courtroom, and Peterson broke down in tears.
“I received my life again,” Peterson instructed reporters outdoors the courtroom following the choice. “It’s been an emotional rollercoaster for thus lengthy, infinite nights.”
He added:Â “Don’t anyone ever neglect this was a bloodbath on February 14. The solely particular person accountable was that monster…Everybody did one of the best they may. We did one of the best we might with the knowledge we had.”
Linda Beigel Schulman, the mom of Marjory Stoneman instructor Scott Beigel, one of many faculty staffers killed within the bloodbath, criticized the previous deputy for his post-verdict assertion.
“Well, bravo for getting your life again. I can not get my son’s life again,” she instructed ABC News Live.
In the aftermath of the taking pictures, Peterson was lambasted by a laundry record of regulation enforcement officers and politicians, from then-Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel to then-President Donald Trump. He resigned amid a media frenzy throughout which he was dubbed the “Coward from Broward.”
Peterson was accused of cowering for greater than 40 minutes outdoors the faculty’s three-story 1200 constructing through the six-minute bloodbath and for an prolonged interval afterward. As beforehand reported by New Times, one officer who later arrived on the scene recollects seeing Peterson take cowl behind a wall of concrete along with his gun drawn, whereas one other instructed investigators he noticed Peterson pacing outdoors the constructing saying, “Oh my god, I can’t consider this,” however failing to do something.
When the gunshots broke out, Peterson was seen on faculty cameras driving in direction of the 1200 constructing in a golf cart with two faculty safety screens. He then took his place outdoors the constructing whereas the assault raged inside. A bunch of scholars was seen within the footage operating
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n the garden.
His lawyer, Mark Eiglarsh, argued that the then-Broward Sheriff’s Office deputy did not enter the constructing as a result of he could not inform the place the pictures had been coming from.
Peterson has lengthy defended his actions that day. He claimed that whereas outdoors, he requested street closures and requested for the college and the encompassing space to be locked down.
According to name summaries launched by the sheriff, Peterson instructed police dispatch through the assault, “Do not strategy the 12 or 1300 constructing. Stay at the very least 500 ft away at this level.”
A Broward Sheriff’s Office timeline said that the shooter dropped his assault rifle and left the constructing at roughly 2:28 p.m. that day. Five minutes later (11 minutes after the bloodbath started), police made their first entry into the constructing.
By that point, the shooter was lengthy gone. He stopped at an area McDonald’s and walked across the neighborhood earlier than Coconut Creek Police officer Michael Leonard apprehended him on a sidewalk after recognizing that he matched the outline of the shooter.
When Peterson was charged, his lawyer Joseph DiRuzzo known as the case unprecedented. DiRuzzo mentioned no police officer in trendy historical past had ever been charged for an allegedly poor response to a mass taking pictures. He claimed, “The people who’ve made this charging resolution have taken the simple method out and blamed Mr. Peterson.”
In an 18-page letter to the state fee investigating the tragedy, which he despatched in May 2018, Peterson mentioned his actions “had been per the coaching I had acquired for the previous 30 years” earlier than claiming that then-BSO sheriff Scott Israel made him a “scapegoat.”
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