Deputy Who Waited Outside During Parkland Massacre Refuses To Testify
The then-sheriff’s deputy who was on campus during the Florida high school massacre but didn’t confront the shooter declined to testify Thursday before a state commission investigating it.
Former Broward County Deputy Scot Peterson failed to appear before the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission, where he would have been asked why he did not enter the building where 14 students and three staff members died Feb. 14 and try to stop the shooter.
BREAKING: Parkland massacre cop Scot Peterson a no-show at commission, files counter suit. https://t.co/wvobFqytUC pic.twitter.com/TQKbDcQO9z
— Miami Herald (@MiamiHerald) November 15, 2018
Instead, his attorney, Joseph DiRuzzo, appeared and told the 14-member panel and the packed crowd he had filed a lawsuit earlier Thursday to quash the panel’s subpoena.
One victim’s father said to DiRuzzo as he left, “He didn’t do his job. My daughter should be alive.”
There had been speculation Peterson might invoke the Fifth Amendment and refuse to testify as a criminal investigation of law enforcement’s response continues.
Attorney for former BSO deputy Scot Peterson spoke on behalf of his client at today’s hearing regarding the investigation in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas massacre. Peterson was issued a subpoena to appear. He resigned after he failed to confront the Parkland shooter. @WPBF25News pic.twitter.com/iKpwrYsG7p
— angelarozier (@wpbf_angela) November 15, 2018
Some of the heaviest criticism Peterson received Wednesday came as commissioners watched a presentation on his actions from the panel’s law enforcement officials.
The commission believes Peterson could have prevented at least six deaths if he entered the building immediately, but he took cover, drew his gun and never went inside.
“He was a cop in name only,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said. “If he had been a real cop, he would have run in there with that gun.”
“He ran. He did not want to go in,” said Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, the commission’s chairman.
The panel also includes educators, mental health professionals, a legislator and the fathers of two slain students.
Peterson told investigators he heard only two or three shots and didn’t know whether they were coming from inside or outside the three-story freshman building. That is contradicted by radio calls in which he correctly identifies the building as the shooter’s location.
Bullets also came out a window almost directly above where he took cover. About 150 shots were fired.
Peterson, 55, retired shortly after the shooting rather than accept a suspension while an internal investigation was conducted.
Former student Nikolas Cruz, 20, is charged with the slayings. He faces a possible death sentence.
The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.
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