A former sheriff's deputy has been found not guilty of failing to protect students when a gunman opened fire at a Florida high school in 2018.
Scot Peterson stayed outside during the attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, near Miami.
Mr Peterson, the school's resource officer, was found not guilty of 11 charges including felony child neglect, culpable negligence and perjury.
The attack, among the deadliest at a US school, saw 17 killed and 17 injured.
Mr Peterson, 60, put his head in his hands and began sobbing as the verdicts were read out in court in Fort Lauderdale.
After the verdict, Mr Peterson told reporters that he would like to talk to the parents of the students who were killed.
"If they need to really know the truth of what occurred... I'll be there for them," he said.
But Tony Montalto, whose daughter Gina was one of the students murdered, said he continued to blame Mr Peterson for not trying to stop the shooting.
"His inaction contributed to the shock, the devastation of students and teachers at that school," Mr Montalto told reporters. "We don't understand how this jury looked at the evidence that was presented and found him not guilty."
"All I can say to the members of the jury is: 'I think your school should hire him to protect your children,'" he said.
The jury heard testimony that when the attack occurred on 14 February 2018, Mr Peterson, who was armed but was not wearing body armour, stayed in an alcove adjacent to the school building for 30 or 40 minutes until the shooting stopped.
A Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation found he "did absolutely nothing to mitigate" the shooting. Critics, including then-President Donald Trump, branded him a coward.
Mr Peterson is believed to be the first US officer charged with failing to respond to a school shooting, according to the National Association of School Resource Officers. He could have faced a sentence of up to 97 years in prison if he had been convicted.
There is no law that requires a police officer to put themselves in the line of fire, or risk their lives during a shooting, so prosecutors chose to charge him with felony child negligence. The case hinged on whether Mr Peterson had a legal obligation to try to stop the killer.
But the defence focused on Mr Peterson's long career, said that he was confused about the where the shots were coming from, and argued that he could not be considered a "caregiver" under a law typically used to prosecute parents or day care providers when children are hurt while under their care.
He didn't confront a school shooter. Should he be jailed?
In a statement, the Broward County State Attorney's Office repeated its contention that Mr Peterson could have done more to save the victims.
"For the first time in our nation's history, prosecutors in this case have tried to hold an armed school resource officer responsible for not doing his job," the attorney's office said.
"As parents, we have an expectation that armed school resource officers - who are under contract to be caregivers to our children - will do their jobs when we entrust our children to them and the schools they guard."
But Bob Jarvis, a law professor at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, said it was a "ridiculous" to attempt to legally designate Mr Peterson a caregiver for hundreds of students.
Mr Jarvis said the case had the potential to set precedent for whether law enforcement - or even civilian school officials - will face prosecution for failing to confront a gunman.
"The government's case always was a long shot at best, and clearly the jury saw that Peterson was merely a scapegoat," Mr Jarvis said.
"This will make it very unlikely for other prosecutors to bring such a case" in the future, he said.
Gunman Nikolas Cruz, a former student at the school, was sentenced in November to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the Parkland attack.
Mr Peterson's trial came after police officers in Uvalde, Texas also faced criticism for failing to confront a killer.
A report by the Texas Department of Public Safety found a Uvalde police officer could have stopped the attack on Robb Elementary School by shooting the killer before he entered, but hesitated while awaiting permission from a supervisor.
More than an hour later, a team of US border patrol agents stormed the school, by which time the gunman had killed 19 children and two teachers and injured 17 others.
Source:
BBC News, Staff, June 30, 2023
After Scot Peterson acquittal, how many bitter pills can grieving Parkland parents take? | Opinion
It was highly unlikely that Scot Peterson could have taken down Nikolas Cruz, before the former-student-turned-gunman would kill 17 people and injure 17 more at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018.
The thing is, he didn’t even try.
Peterson was the only school resource officer on the scene when Cruz began his deadly rampage. Peterson, though armed, not only didn’t rush into the school where people were screaming and being slaughtered, he didn’t enter the school building at all. Footage from a security camera caught much of what he did — and what he didn’t do — earning the derisive nickname, “The Coward from Broward.”
Thursday, in a Broward County courtroom, Peterson 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 occurred. He arrived about two-and-a-half minutes after shooting started. By then, those on the first floor of Building 1200 had been shot; Cruz had headed to the third floor, skipping the second.
Peterson not only failed to enter the building when he arrived, he remained outside long after other police officers showed up and stormed in.
He was also found not guilty of one count of perjury. He had told police that he heard only a few gunshots and saw no children running from the building.
His relief upon hearing Thursday’s verdict was obvious — as was the grief of the few parents and others in the courtroom who lost loved ones in that Feb. 14 massacre. Peterson put the palms of his hands together as if in prayer and nodded to the jurors in gratitude.
The parents likely could only wonder: When does it end? When will the punishment fit the horror of what happened? Last year, they and other survivors of those killed were stunned when Cruz, who pleaded guilty to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder, nevertheless received life in prison without parole, after one juror balked at the death penalty.
Peterson’s acquittal rubbed salt in wounds that won’t heal.
Prosecutors might not have done themselves any favors in charging Peterson with child neglect. According to The New York Times, jurors would have to agree that he was a “caregiver” responsible for the students’ welfare. “Even the judge expressed skepticism from the bench at the argument that the former deputy’s inaction could be said to have ‘caused’ harm.”
And there may be precedent: In 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police are not always constitutionally required to help a victim against violence.
Five years on, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting continues to roil our expectations of elected officials, appointed leaders, law-enforcement officers and Florida law — for good and for ill.
One grieving — and aggrieved — parent, Lori Alhadeff, was voted onto the Broward County School Board.
Angry students and their supporters refused to take No for an answer and pressured reluctant state lawmakers into passing legislation that, among other things, raised the age to buy rifles and “long guns” to 21 from 18. Then-Gov. Rick Scott signed it into law. The NRA challenged it almost immediately, of course, but the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the law.
(This year lawmakers in the Florida House took the low road and voted 69-36 to lower the age to 18 again. But no one in the state Senate filed a companion bill, and the initiative rightly died.)
State lawmakers this year also gave Gov. DeSantis yet another misbegotten victory with legislation — now the law — declaring jury decisions no longer need be unanimous to impose the death penalty — just 8-4. This misstep is directly related to the Cruz verdict. Florida now has the sorry distinction of having set the lowest bar in the country for the death penalty in a state with the highest number of exonerations of inmates wrongly accused and convicted of murder.
What Parkland hasn’t changed is our expectations that police officers are supposed to protect us, with our understanding — and admiration — that their jobs are wholly unpredictable, frightening and dangerous.
Peterson did not meet expectations; and, as far as Parkland survivors are concerned, neither did Broward prosecutors.
Peterson might not have been thinking clearly when, speaking for himself and his wife after the verdict, “We’ve got our life back after four and a half years. It’s been an emotional roller coaster for so long.”
Knowing full well that they will never, ever regain the lives of their daughters and sons and spouses, the victims’ survivors likely would concur with only the second sentence of Peterson’s statement.
Source: The Miami Herald, Editorial Board, June 30, 2023
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