School police officer vilified as though he was the shooter
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 surveillance video 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 initially 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 dealt with fireworks before.
The cop, who resigned after the massacre, maintains he heard only two or three rounds, despite Cruz having fired off a reported 150 rounds of ammunition.
He defended his actions by saying he followed training protocol as he thought the sounds were coming 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. Ultimately he was employed to protect the children and staff, but how he is now held to be nearly as villainous as the accused school shooter he failed to confront, is beyond me.
Despite all the training, no one can know how they would respond when faced with such lethal threat.
Sadly Peterson found out on the day when others needed him most.