A guard who allegedly hid while a mass shooter killed 17 at a Florida high school in 2018 was found not guilty Thursday of charges of neglect and negligence.
In an emotionally charged trial, a jury found no fault with the actions of former sheriff’s deputy Scot Peterson, 60, during the shooting at the school in the suburban city of Parkland.
On February 14, 2018, then-19-year-old former student Nikolas Cruz walked into the school carrying a semiautomatic rifle and shot dead 14 students and three staff members.
Cruz, who was able to buy his powerful weapon despite having known mental health issues, wounded another 17 people.
Peterson, a guard at the school, was accused of failing to enter the school building to pursue Cruz even though he was armed and had received training in confronting an active shooter.
Peterson, believed the first law enforcement officer in the country charged for failing to take action during a school shooting, was indicted for multiple counts of felony child neglect, and culpable negligence and one count of perjury.
The jury ruled him not guilty on all counts. Peterson broke down in tears when the verdict was announced.
“I got my life back” after the four-year court saga, he said outside the court.
His attorney Mark Eiglarsh said it was “not just a victory for Scot, but a victory for all law enforcement officers.”
– ‘Coward’ or ‘scapegoat’? –
The Parkland shooting stunned the nation and reignited debate on gun control and how to protect schools from armed attacks.
Families of the dead and injured placed some of the blame for the extent of the deaths and injuries on Peterson.
During the trial, prosecutor Steven Klinger said Peterson, who had been in law enforcement for 32 years and a school resource officer, or security guard, at the school since 2009, had been trained to deal with such attacks.
Klinger said Peterson took shelter in an alcove outside the school building and remained there for 48 minutes, well after the shooting ended.
“In an active shooter situation, you go for the gunshots. You’re trained to go for those shots, to find that shooter, because every shot could be a death,” Klinger said.
Eiglarsh countered that his client was made a scapegoat, and denied that he was a “coward.”
Peterson could not tell where the gunshots were coming from on the sprawling Parkland campus and “did everything that you possibly could with the limited information that he had,” Eiglarsh contended.
Manuel Oliver, whose 17-year-old son Joaquin was killed at Parkland, expressed anger after the verdict at the reactions by Peterson and Eiglarsh after the verdict was announced.
“Tell me about that pain,” he said.
Peterson “obviously made a mistake and needs to be accountable,” he said.
“The honest thing to do is to walk out of that room quiet,” he added.