Video shows deputy outside Florida school during fatal shooting

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Newly released surveillance videos show deputy Scot Peterson take up a position against a wall across from the building being shot up at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and remain there until well after Nikolas Cruz had completed a massacre that left 17 dead.

Peterson, the school resource officer, resigned after being suspended by the Broward Sheriff’s Office for failing to confront the shooter during the Feb. 14 attack at the Parkland school.

“The video speaks for itself,” the Sheriff ’s Office said in a statement that accompanied the release of the video. “His actions were enough to warrant an internal affairs investigation, as requested by Sheriff Scott Israel on Feb. 21. After being suspended without pay, Peterson chose to resign and immediately retired rather than face possible termination.”

The videos, released in response to a lawsuit from the Sun Sentinel, Miami Herald and CNN under Florida’s public records law, shed light on Peterson’s actions but little else.

The Sheriff’s Office is investigating allegations from Coral Springs officers that other deputies held back and did not enter the building, Israel said. But the videos, made public in response to an order Monday from Broward judge, focus on Peterson’s actions only, which is what the lawsuit had sought.

No videos from other angles or other parts of the campus were released. Although the videos released Thursday show other officers arriving, it’s difficult to see what agency they’re from and what they’re doing.

The videos released Thursday start at 2:22 p.m., less than a minute after the Broward Sheriff’s Office said Cruz entered the school and began shooting. Peterson can be seen running to a golf cart, at a time when the first 911 call goes out to Coral Springs police, according to a sheriff’s office timeline.

In the videos, people whose images are blurred run out of a building.

At the time, according to the agency’s timeline, Peterson said over his police radio: “Be advised we have possible, could be firecrackers, I think we have shots fired, possible shots fired — 1200 building.”

The video shows a golf cart driving past the 700 building, adjacent to the building where the shooting was taking place. Peterson walks to the 700 building and takes up a position by the wall, with a view of the building in which Cruz was shooting.