The previous Florida faculty useful resource officer who stayed exterior Marjory Stoneman Douglas Excessive Faculty as a lethal mass capturing unfolded inside in 2018 was discovered not responsible Thursday
A jury deliberated over the course of 4 days earlier than discovering former Broward County Deputy Scot Peterson, 60, not responsible of all 11 costs he confronted. The fees included a number of counts of neglect of a kid and culpable negligence.
Peterson could possibly be seen crying because the verdicts have been learn.
Peterson waited exterior the varsity on Feb. 14, 2018, when a shooter entered the Parkland highschool and opened fireplace, killing 14 college students and three workers members. Fifteen others have been additionally injured within the assault.
Because the photographs rang out within the faculty, Peterson ― who was the primary officer on the scene ― fled to an alcove simply exterior, the place he waited for 48 minutes as college students and lecturers have been killed inside.
“The defendant won’t ever go away that alcove whereas the shooter is within the constructing,” prosecutor Steven Klinger mentioned whereas explaining the timeline throughout his opening statements earlier this month.
Peterson has maintained he didn’t enter the constructing as a result of he didn’t know the place the gunshots have been coming from. In the course of the trial, protection lawyer Mark Eiglarsh known as two dozen witnesses who testified additionally they couldn’t inform the place the capturing was coming from.
Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Solar-Sentinel through Related Press
Witnesses for the prosecution included Dawn Police Lt. Craig Cardinale, who testified that Peterson would have seen useless our bodies within the faculty if he had opened the door.
“I instantly opened the door,” Cardinale testified for the prosecution earlier this month. “About 25 ft in entrance of me there have been a pair our bodies on the ground in clear sight.”
One month after the capturing, the Broward County Sheriff’s Workplace launched surveillance video that confirmed Peterson ushering college students away from the constructing earlier than getting in a golf cart with one other individual and driving away from the constructing, after which circling again.
“Get the varsity locked down, gents!” Peterson shouted at one level through the incident, police radio recordings revealed. The previous deputy may be heard telling different officers to remain away.
“Don’t strategy the 12 or 1300 constructing. Keep a minimum of 500 ft away at this level,” he mentioned on the police radio minutes after the capturing had stopped and college students and workers have been dying.
The opposite individual seen on the golf cart was Kelvin Greenleaf, an unarmed faculty safety supervisor who testified final week that Peterson “had a clean look on his face.”
“It was a lot happening and I might think about the stress, the stress he was on,” Greenleaf testified.
In a press release to JHB on the time of its launch, the sheriff’s workplace mentioned the surveillance video of Peterson “speaks for itself.”