Jury vicariously acquits who failed to confront Parkland Gunman

A former Florida deputy sheriff who failed to confront the gunman at a Parkland high school five years ago and instead left the building as the students and teachers endured a deadly barrage inside was found not guilty on Thursday child neglect and other crimes. .

Scot Peterson, a former Broward County sheriff’s deputy, was acquitted of seven counts of child neglect and three counts of culpable negligence for the deaths and injuries of 10 people on the third floor of the building where the shooting took place. He was also found not guilty of one count of perjury because he claimed to police that he only heard a few gunshots and saw no children fleeing.

When Mr. Peterson’s post-shooting behavior came to light, critics—including some fellow police officers—painted him as too scared to face a heavily armed gunman. His actions enraged the Parkland community and Mr. Peterson was cast as the central character in a morality tale about cowardice and law enforcement’s duty to protect children. A victim’s father told him to “rot in hell,” and he was derided in the national media as the “coward in Broward.”

A total of 17 people were killed and 17 injured in the shooting, which was committed by a former student. The gunman was sentenced to life in prison last year, in the same courtroom where Mr. Peterson was acquitted on Thursday. Mr. Peterson was the only armed officer assigned to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School during the February 14, 2018 massacre.

On Thursday, Mr. Peterson, 60, sobbed violently as Broward County Circuit Court Judge Martin S. Fein read the verdict in a courtroom in downtown Fort Lauderdale, where only a few relatives of the victims were present. Mr. Peterson, standing in prayer position with his hands clasped together, nodded and spoke quietly thanks to the jurors as they walked out.

“We have our lives back after four and a half years,” Mr. Peterson said, still emotional, outside the courtroom, next to his wife. “It’s been an emotional rollercoaster for so long.”

The trial was believed to be the first in the country against a police officer for inaction during a mass shooting, and a conviction would have cleared the way for prosecutors to charge other law enforcement officers over their response to mass shootings. Police in Uvalde, Texas are under investigation because officers waited more than an hour before entering two classrooms at Robb Elementary School during a May 2022 shooting that left 21 people dead.

But from the start, experts believed there was a good chance that Florida prosecutors would succeed. Because they charged Mr. Peterson with child neglect, an unusual legal approach, they had to convince jurors that the former sheriff’s deputy was a “caretaker” responsible for the welfare of students, a designation not usually used for police officers. Even the judge expressed skepticism from the hearing on the argument that the former deputy’s inaction could be said to have “caused” damage.

“This is not just a victory for Scot,” said Mark Eiglarsh, his lawyer. “It is a victory for every law enforcement officer in this country who is doing their best every day. How dare prosecutors question the actions of honorable, decent police officers?”

It was the second embarrassing defeat in the Parkland shooting for the Broward State Attorney’s Office. Prosecutors demanded the death penalty for the shooter, but he was sentenced to life in prison instead.

“For the first time in our nation’s history, prosecutors in this case have attempted to hold an armed school resource officer responsible for failing to do his job,” said Harold F. Pryor, a Democrat and the elected prosecutor. in a statement after the Peterson verdict. “We did this because we think it’s important not only for our community, but for the country as a whole.”

The jury of three women and three men, who deliberated for about 19 hours over four days after a two and a half week trial, ruled that the prosecutors had not conclusively proved that Mr. Peterson, who did not testify, should be regarded as someone who responsible for the well-being of a child.

“This was a massacre,” Mr Peterson said after the verdict. “The only culprit was that monster.”

“We did our best with the information we had,” he added. “And God knows we wish we’d had more.”

While a state inquiry revealed widespread misconduct, including other police failings, Mr. Peterson was the only person other than the gunman charged in the shooting. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 96 years and the loss of his $104,000 annual pension.

Mr Peterson said he had mourned Parkland’s death and would be ready to sit down with the families of the victims. But the parents of two victims, after hearing the verdict in court, said they had no interest in such a meeting, adding that they were again in disbelief and deeply disappointed.

“I feel like my faith in the American justice system has been shaken,” said Tony Montalto, who lost his 14-year-old daughter Gina. “And I think the people of Broward County need to learn how to hold people accountable when they fail. How can you let 17 people die in a school and everyone is called a hero?

Tom Hoyer, whose 15-year-old son, Luke, was killed, said: “I don’t know what our kids and our teachers are supposed to do in a school if the person who’s supposed to protect them isn’t doing that.”

Mr. Peterson arrived outside what was known as the 1200 Building about two and a half minutes after the shooting began. He flinched and remained in the alcove of a stairway of an adjacent building for the remaining four minutes or so of the shooting — and for more than 40 minutes afterward, long after the gunman had fled the building and other police officers had rushed in. .

In addition to Luke Hoyer and Gina Montalto, the students and adults killed in the shooting included Alyssa Alhadeff, 14; Scott Beigel, 35; Martin Duque, 14; Nicholas Dworet, 17; Aaron Feis, 37; Jaime Guttenberg, 14; Christopher Hixon, 49; Cara Loughran, 14; Joaquin Oliver, 17; Alaina Small, 14; Meadow Pollak, 18; Helena Ramsay, 17; Alex Schachter, 14; Carmen Schentrup, 16, and Peter Wang, 15.

The 2019 indictment against Mr Peterson raised a fundamental question about whether he had been frozen under pressure – and whether such a response constituted a crime for a sworn police officer assigned to a school.

Police officers were once trained to wait for SWAT teams to confront mass shooters, but that changed after the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. The chief of the Broward Sheriff’s Office training unit testified that Mr. Peterson was trained to attempt to confront a gunman, even without police support, to stop the killing.

“From my personal experience in my schools were the students Mine students and that was it Mine school,” said Mac Hardy, director of operations for the National Association of School Resource Officers. “When you put on that gun belt and leave your house every morning, you know what your responsibilities are and what you need to do to be successful in keeping your kids safe.”

Prosecutors admitted Mr Peterson could not have stopped any of the deaths or injuries on the first floor of the three-story building that occurred before he arrived. But they said he might have had a chance to avoid 10 deaths or injuries on the third floor. No one on the second floor was injured.

“He chose his life over everyone else’s,” Chris Killoran, an assistant state attorney, said Monday.

Mr Peterson told investigators he was not sure where the gunfire was coming from or how many gunmen there were. He shouted “code red” to shut down the school and did his best under stressful conditions with limited information and bad radios.

Mr Eiglarsh, the defense solicitor, said Mr Peterson had been a scapegoat for the former sheriff, whose office was under intense scrutiny after the shooting and never questioned Mr Peterson to get his account of the shooting before handing him over. pushed out.