4 years after a college useful resource officer was arrested for failing to confront the shooter through the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Excessive Faculty bloodbath, a jury has acquitted him on all prices.

Scot Peterson was arrested in June 2019 on practically a dozen legal prices for taking cowl as a substitute of confronting the expelled highschool scholar who gunned down 14 college students and three employees 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 concerning 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 determination on the afternoon of June 29: not responsible.

Gasps broke out within the courtroom, and Peterson broke down in tears.

“I acquired my life again,” Peterson informed reporters exterior the courtroom following the choice. “It has been an emotional rollercoaster for thus lengthy, countless nights.”

He added: “Do not anyone ever overlook this was a bloodbath on February 14. The one particular person accountable was that monster…Everyone did one of the best they might. We did one of the best we may with the data we had.”

Linda Beigel Schulman, the mom of Marjory Stoneman instructor Scott Beigel, one of many college staffers killed within the bloodbath, criticized the previous deputy for his post-verdict assertion.

“Nicely, bravo for getting your life again. I can’t get my son’s life again,” she informed ABC Information Stay.

Within the aftermath of the taking pictures, Peterson was lambasted by a laundry listing 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 exterior the college’s three-story 1200 constructing through the six-minute bloodbath and for an prolonged interval afterward. As beforehand reported by New Occasions, one officer who later arrived on the scene remembers seeing Peterson take cowl behind a wall of concrete along with his gun drawn, whereas one other informed investigators he noticed Peterson pacing exterior the constructing saying, “Oh my god, I can’t imagine this,” however failing to do something.

When the gunshots broke out, Peterson was seen on college cameras driving in direction of the 1200 constructing in a golf cart with two college safety displays. He then took his place exterior the constructing whereas the assault raged inside. A bunch of scholars was seen within the footage working
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n the garden.

His lawyer, Mark Eiglarsh, argued that the then-Broward Sheriff’s Workplace deputy did not enter the constructing as a result of he could not inform the place the photographs have been coming from.

Peterson has lengthy defended his actions that day. He claimed that whereas exterior, he requested street closures and requested for the college and the encompassing space to be locked down.

In line with name summaries launched by the sheriff, Peterson informed police dispatch through the assault, “Don’t strategy the 12 or 1300 constructing. Keep at the very least 500 ft away at this level.”

A Broward Sheriff’s Workplace timeline acknowledged that the shooter dropped his assault rifle and left the constructing at roughly 2:28 p.m. that day. 5 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 referred to as the case unprecedented. DiRuzzo stated 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 determination have taken the straightforward approach out and blamed Mr. Peterson.”

In an 18-page letter to the state fee investigating the tragedy, which he despatched in Could 2018, Peterson stated his actions “have been in line with 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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