Global Courant
Prosecutors in the United States have made opening arguments in a case against a former sheriff’s deputy who allegedly failed to intervene when a gunman attacked a Parkland, Florida high school in 2018.
Scot Peterson, a former school resource officer at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, faces 11 criminal charges, including child neglect and culpable negligence, as a result of his conduct. He has pleaded not guilty.
His trial, which began Wednesday, is believed to be the first of its kind in the US. Never before has a law enforcement officer been prosecuted for inaction during a school shooting.
But during opening arguments, Peterson’s legal team warned that a successful prosecution could set a dangerous precedent.
“He did everything he could with the limited information he had,” said Mark Eiglarsh, Peterson’s attorney.
Eiglarsh argued that Peterson was “sacrificed” to reduce public scrutiny over the Parkland incident. The attack, which left 17 dead and 17 injured, remains one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.
“He was thrown under the bus,” Eiglarsh told the Broward County courtroom. “He’s not a criminal.”
The defense attorney argued that Peterson’s prosecution was an attempt to divert blame from other officials, including Scott Israel, then-Broward County Sheriff.
“There was a lot of heat coming at him,” Eiglarsh said of Israel, who was removed from his elected position after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis accused him of “repeated incompetence and dereliction of duty”.
The Florida legislature eventually ratified the governor’s decision to suspend Israel from service.
The prosecution, meanwhile, painted a different picture of what happened on February 14, 2018, when then-19-year-old Nikolas Cruz — a former student — opened fire in the school.
Broward County State Attorney Steven Klinger highlighted the fact that Peterson left his office 36 seconds after Cruz began firing, using an AR-15 style rifle to fire about 139 rounds.
But Peterson ultimately stayed outside the building where the attack took place, Klinger claimed, taking refuge 80 feet away.
“He’s the head security officer at that school,” Klinger told the six-member jury. “He’s trained to handle a situation where he’s the only law enforcement person dealing with an active shooter.”
According to Klinger, that gave Peterson the need to act: “You have to get in there and you have to find the shooter.”
The shooting lasted about six minutes. Peterson, the prosecutor explained, held his position for nearly 40 minutes.
Assistant State Attorney Steven Klinger delivers opening statement for the prosecution Wednesday (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP Pool)
In addition to three felony charges of negligence and seven counts of child neglect, Peterson faces a felony charge of perjury for his statements to investigators after the massacre.
Peterson explained at the time that he only heard “two, three” shots coming from the building, which prosecutors have ruled a lie.
Defense attorney Eiglarsh tried to complicate that story on Wednesday, highlighting the confusion many witnesses at the scene said they experienced. Eiglarsh plans to call 22 of them to testify, he said.
He also explained that Peterson meant the “two, three” shots only as what he initially heard – not as an overall assessment of the gunfire that day.
Peterson, like other witnesses, initially told investigators that he thought the shooting had taken place outside, given the loud noise of the attack. He has since expressed regret in the American media for what happened that day.
“That’s my kids in there,” Peterson told the TODAY Show in June 2018. “I would never have sat there and had my kids slaughtered.”
He added: “It’s easy sitting there, for people to say, ‘Oh, he should have known that person was up there,'” referring to the shooter.
Peterson faces a combined sentence of 97 years if convicted on all charges. In November, Cruz, the shooter, was sentenced to life without parole.
The outcome of the case could have repercussions beyond Florida as school shootings continue to plague the US. In the aftermath of an elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas that left 21 people dead, police officers have also faced investigations for failing to stop the violence.
