Parkland deputy who fled to safety instead of confronting gunman Nikolas Cruz is found not guilty

A former Florida sheriff’s deputy who was found not guilty of child neglect and other crimes when he fled to safety as 17 people were gunned down at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School says he ‘got his life back.’

Scot Peterson, 60, was seen sobbing into his lawyer’s arms after he was acquitted of all 11 charges against him on Thursday.

The campus deputy at the high school, Peterson had been charged with failing to confront gunman Nikolas Cruz during his six-minute attack inside a three-story 1200 classroom building on February 14, 2018, that left 17 dead. 

‘I got my life back,’ he and his wife told reporters outside the courtroom. ‘We got our life back after four and a half, five and a half, years because of Mark [Eiglarsh] and being able to get the truth out of what happened.’

He added that ‘the only person to blame was that monster,’ referring to Cruz, who was sentenced to life in prison without parole after being spared the death penalty.

But one of the victim’s father’s said Peterson should be ‘haunted’ by his ‘failure to act’ after he got drowned out by Peterson’s family who were cheering his release.

Speaking to reporters following the verdict, Peterson said: ‘It’s been an emotional rollercoaster for so long,’ citing ‘endless nights’ talking to his attorney at 1am ‘trying to understand and learn about this whole case.

‘It was unbelievable. It was unbelievable,’ the disgraced former cop said. ‘But don’t forget this was a massacre on February 14. The only person to blame was that monster, who wasn’t any law enforcement,’ he said of Cruz.

And speaking of the law enforcement response, Peterson said: ‘Everybody did the best they could, we did the best we could with the information we had and God only knows we wish we had more.’

But Tony Montalto, whose 14-year-old daughter, Gina, was killed in the massacre, disagreed, saying Peterson should have been found guilty for fleeing the scene when Cruz opened fire.

‘Sadly we don’t understand what you need to see to find people guilty in Broward County,’ he said, explaining: ‘There’s video of the former deputy commissioner hearing the shot, running and hiding, taking up the position for 48 minutes, standing still while other officers rushed in, standing still while victim were brought out —’

At that point, Montalto was drowned out by the sound of Peterson’s friends and families cheering his release.

‘That shows the sportsmanship of the deputy’s supporters,’ he said, sourly.

When the cheering finally died down, Montalto admitted that ‘the law is very technical’ but said, ‘For our families, we still feel he should be haunted every day by his failure to act.

‘I know he caused, or he contributed, I should say, to the deaths of my daughter, Gina, her schoolmates and their teachers.

‘His inaction contributed to the pain of our entire community and we don’t understand how this jury looked at the evidence that was presented and found him not guilty.’ 

Security videos show that 36 seconds after Cruz’s attack began, Peterson exited his office about 100 yards from the 1200 building and jumped into a cart with two unarmed civilian security guards. They arrived at the building a minute later.

Peterson got out of the cart near the east doorway to the first-floor hallway. Cruz was at the hallways opposite end, firing his AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle.

Peterson, who was not wearing a bullet-resistant vest, didn’t open the door. Instead, he took cover 75 feet away in the alcove of a neighboring building, his gun still drawn. He stayed there for 40 minutes, long after the shooting ended and other police officers had stormed the building.

Peterson spent nearly three decades working at schools, including nine years at Stoneman Douglas. He retired shortly after the shooting and was then fired retroactively.

He also said he hopes to to one day sit down with the Parkland parents and spouses to tell them ‘the truth,’ that he did everything he could.

‘I would love to talk to them. I have no problem,’ he said. ‘I’m there.’

The acquittal concludes the first trial in U.S. history of a law enforcement officer for conduct during an on-campus shooting. 

After court adjourned, Peterson, his family and friends rushed into a group hug as they whooped, hollered and cried. 

One of his supporters chased after lead prosecutor Chris Killoran and said something. 

Killoran turned and snapped at him, ‘Way to be a good winner’ and slapped him on the shoulder. Members of the prosecution team then nudged Killoran out of the courtroom.

Peterson could have received nearly 100 years in prison, although a sentence even approaching that length would have been highly unlikely given the circumstances and his clean record. He also could have lost his $104,000 annual pension.

Prosecutors, during their two-week presentation, called to the witness stand students, teachers and law enforcement officers who testified about the horror they experienced and how they knew where Cruz was. 

Some said they knew for certain that the shots were coming from the 1200 building. Prosecutors also called a training supervisor who testified Peterson did not follow protocols for confronting an active shooter.

During his two-day presentation, Peterson’s attorney, Mark Eiglarsh, called several deputies who arrived during the shooting and students and teachers who testified they did not think the shots were coming from the 1200 building. Peterson, who did not testify, has said that because of echoes, he could not pinpoint the shooter’s location.

Eiglarsh also emphasized the failure of the sheriff’s radio system during the attack, which limited what Peterson heard from arriving deputies.

‘As parents, we have an expectation that armed school resource officers – who are under contract to be caregivers to our children – will do their jobs when we entrust our children to them and the schools they guard,’ Broward State Attorney Harold F. Pryor and the prosecutor’s office said in a statement after the verdict. 

‘They have a special role and responsibilities that exceed the role and responsibilities of a police officer. To those who have tried to make this political, I say: It is not political to expect someone to do their job.’

Tony Montalto, whose 14-year-old daughter Gina was killed on the first floor, and Tom Hoyer, whose 15-year-old son Luke died next to her, watched the verdict. They said they had no interest in talking with Peterson, who was not charged in connection with those deaths.

‘No. No. Bring me my daughter back,’ Montalto said. ‘We´ll all trade anything to get our kids back. The spouses, they who lost someone, they want them back, too. And if that´s not going to happen, why do we need to talk to this failure. He didn´t do the right thing. He ran away.’

Montalto said if the jurors believe Peterson acted appropriately, they should get him hired at their children’s schools.

Peterson spent nearly three decades working at schools, including nine years at Stoneman Douglas. He retired shortly after the shooting and was then fired retroactively.

The massacre carried out by Cruz is the deadliest mass shooting that has ever gone to trial in the U.S. Nine other people in the U.S. who fatally shot at least 17 people died during or immediately after their attacks by suicide or police gunfire. 

Cruz’s jury could not unanimously agree he deserved the death penalty. The 24-year-old former Stoneman Douglas student was then sentenced to life in prison.

During the three-month trial, the prosecution had argued Cruz’s crime was both premeditated as well as heinous and cruel, which are among the criteria that Florida law establishes for deciding on a death sentence.

Cruz’s defense team had acknowledged the severity of his crimes, but asked jurors to consider his lifelong mental health disorders resulting from his biological mother’s substance abuse during pregnancy.

During their seven hours of deliberation, jurors only asked for a readback of one testimony – the prosecution’s cross-examination of a defense psychologist who said Cruz suffers from fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

They later requested to see the AR-15 that Cruz used in the shootings.

Cruz had said he chose Valentine’s Day to make it impossible for Stoneman Douglas students to celebrate the holiday ever again.

Almost exactly a year before the rampage, he purchased his AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle and his planning became serious about seven months in advance as he researched previous mass shooters, saying he tried to learn from their experience.

In his guilty plea, he said he was ‘very sorry’ and asked to be given a chance to help others.

The shooting stunned the nation and reignited debate on gun control since Cruz had legally purchased the gun he used despite his history of mental issues.