Parkland massacre officer a no-show at state panel
SUNRISE, Fla. — Scot Peterson, the disgraced school resource officer at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who failed to act when a former student shot and killed 17 people and injured 17 more, did not show up at the state commission where he was subpoenaed to testify Thursday.
Instead, Peterson is suing the commission created to investigate the Feb. 14 massacre — and he has started a GoFundMe page to raise $150,000 for a legal defense fund.
His lawyer, Joseph DiRuzzo, made a brief appearance before the commission to inform members that Peterson would not appear and to hand-deliver a lawsuit, which seeks to quash the commission’s subpoena.
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, chairman of the commission, said the panel was caught off-guard. He said DiRuzzo had not communicated with the commission.
In the statement, DiRuzzo said the commission was not acting as a “neutral fact-finding body” but had “succumbed to the not-so-thinly-veiled personal agendas of the commission members.” It also points out that Stoneman Douglas administrators were supposed to do a “threat assessment” of alleged shooter Nikolas Cruz after Peterson investigated allegations he had ingested gasoline, and argues that Peterson followed Broward’s active shooter training.
Peterson’s lawsuit argues that the commission is exceeding its statutory authority and asks a Broward judge to strike down its subpoena. It also says Gualtieri should be removed as chairman.