A Florida jury found a former school resource officer who remained outside as a gunman killed 17 people and injured 17 others in February 2018 not guilty on all charges.
Peterson was found not guilty on all charges, including 11 counts, including felony child neglect, culpable negligence, and perjury. He had faced up to life in prison if convicted on all counts.
State prosecutors accused Scot Peterson, 60, of ignoring his training and doing nothing as 17 people, including 14 students, were gunned down at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in what became the deadliest US high school shooting ever.
His attorney argued the then-Broward Sheriff’s Office deputy didn’t enter the building under attack because he couldn’t tell where the shots were coming from.
Peterson pled not guilty to 11 counts, including seven felony counts of child neglect and three misdemeanor counts of culpable negligence. He had also faced a misdemeanor count of perjury for allegedly lying to investigators about the number of gunshots he heard after arriving at the scene and about whether he saw people fleeing the 1200 building, the site of the shooting.
Jurors met for at least 15 hours in their deliberations. About 200 attacks have unfolded on K-12 campusessince the Valentine’s Day carnage at the Parkland school, a CNN tally shows, and more than 330 shootings with at least four wounded, excluding a shooter, have been recorded so far this year, the Gun Violence Archive reports.
The case is doubly unusual because prosecutors brought the child neglect charges under a Florida statute that governs caregivers, arguing Peterson as a school resource officer had a duty to protect the students.
To ‘Monday morning quarterback is unfair,’ defense says
Peterson was accused of failing to confront the gunman according to his active shooter training, instead taking cover for more than 45 minutes outside the school’s three-story 1200 building before the killer was apprehended.
Peterson “left behind an unrestricted killer to spend the next 4 minutes and 15 seconds wandering the halls at his leisure,” Assistant State Attorney Kristen Gomes said in closing arguments Monday. “Because when Scot Peterson ran, he left children trapped inside of the building with a predator unchecked.”
The charges against Petersonreflect the deaths and injuries of eight students – seven of them minors – and two school employees on the third floor of the 1200 building: Teacher Scott Beigel and students Meadow Pollack, Jaime Guttenberg, Cara Loughran, Joaquin Oliver and Peter Wang all were killed, while teacher Stacey Lippel and students Anthony Borges, Kyle Laman and Marian Kabachenko were wounded and survived.
Peterson was not charged in connection with the victims on the first floor because he had not yet arrived on scene; no one was killed on the second floor.
Peterson, who retired as criticism of his alleged failure grew, never knew where the shooter was, defense attorney Mark Eiglarsh told jurors, pointing to other witnesses who testified they could not narrow down where the deadly shots originated. The trial included testimony from former students, staff and members of law enforcement who supported the ex-deputy’s claim it was difficult to hear where the gunfire was coming from.
“Two dozen witnesses came in here one by one and told you they couldn’t tell from the sounds precisely what area we’re talking about,” Eiglarsh said in his closing argument Monday. And even if Peterson had known where the shooter was, speculation he could have made a difference is false, Eiglarsh argued.
Jurors also heard from witnesses who testified they knew the shots were emanating from the 1200 building, as well as law enforcement officers who testified theirtraining dictated they move toward the sound of gunfire to confront a possible shooter.
Eiglarsh has emphasized Peterson was at the scene for the last 4 minutes and 15 seconds of the shooting, which lasted about 6 1/2 minutes. Peterson also arrived at the scene without a bulletproof vest or rifle and called for measures to lock down the school, the attorney told jurors.
“To sit in the calmness of a courtroom that is chill and mellow and try to go back and Monday morning quarterback is unfair and unjust,” he said.
"We should remember that the victims. My beautiful daughter gina, her schoolmates and her teacher are who we should have sympathy for. Not the failed deputy Peterson." Said Tony Montalto, the father of Gina Montalto, a 14-year-old killed during the parkland school shooting.
Montalto is also the President of Stand with Parkland, an organization that is committed to advocating for public safety reforms focused on the safety of children and staff at school, improved mental health support, and responsible firearms ownership.
He says today's verdict highlights the need for change.
“This is something that we need to change. We need to make sure that the people that are sworn to protect actually do so.” Montalto said
Gunman Nikolas Cruz is currently serving a life sentence for the attack.
