School gun horror cop failed tragic kids & staff
THE Florida school police officer who hid when an ex-pupil opened fire killing 17 people has broken his silence saying he thought the shooting was “idiot kids with firecrackers”.
Scot Peterson was seen on CCTV refusing to enter Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School when Nikolas Cruz carried out his massacre on February 14.
Now the 55-year-old has spoken to say he thought it was just a childish prank after being told by the school guard it sounded like a “possible firecracker”.
Peterson, dubbed a “coward” by Donald Trump, said he had previously dealt with fireworks on campus.
The cop, who resigned after the massacre, maintains he heard only two or three rounds, despite Cruz having fired off a reported 150.
He defended his actions by saying he followed training protocol as he thought the sounds came from outside.
“I was trying to figure it out,” Peterson said as he watched a video recreation of the shooting.
I’m not excusing Peterson’s actions as he was employed to protect the children and staff.
But now he is held to be nearly as villainous as the attacker.
Despite all the training, no one can know how they would respond when faced with such lethal threat.
Sadly Peterson found out when others needed him most.