Allie Wenskoski, Freshman
According to the New York Times, Scot Peterson had his first court appearance today. The former sheriff’s deputy and school resource officer at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School was the only armed person on the property when on February 14, 2018, one of the United States’ most fatal school shootings occurred. Video surveillance showed Peterson staying outside when the massacre took place. In this shooting, seventeen faculty and students were killed and seventeen others were injured. Former F.B.I agent Clinton R. Van Zandt said, “This is the first time I have seen somebody so charged like this. I think that every police officer, sheriff, and F.B.I. agent understands that you have to go to the threat and stop it and that we are no longer going to wait for SWAT or set up perimeters.” Students claimed to see Peterson standing outside and pointing his gun at the building. Senior Brandon Huff claims that Peterson was, “wearing a bulletproof vest...while school security guards, coaches pretty much, were running and shielding kids.”
The Broward Sheriff’s Office active shooter policy tells that deputies must try to stop a shooting and search for victims when the shooter stops firing. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement said that Peterson did nothing to stop the shooting, but instead fled to safety himself. He is being charged with seven counts of felony, including neglect of a child and perjury. However, Peterson’s defense lawyers claim that Peterson thought the gunshots were coming from the outside, so he went outside to try to stop the attack. Surveillance cameras show Peterson outside for over forty five minutes. It shows him talking to another adult, and then speaking into a radio headset. During the time that Peterson was outside, the gunman killed five students and one teacher. Scot Peterson did report hearing gunshots near the 1200 building.
President Trump called Peterson a coward and criticized him multiple times. Scot was arrested yesterday and if convicted, he faces 96 years in prison.
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