School shooting video shows deputy outside
Newly released surveillance videos show school deputy Scot Peterson standing and waiting outside a building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High as Nikolas Cruz massacred 17 people.
One of the videos shows him taking up a position against the wall of one building and stand there until well after Cruz had completed the killings in an adjacent building and left the campus.
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 videos, released in response to a lawsuit from the South Florida 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 didn’t enter the building, Broward Sheriff Scott Israel said. But the videos, made public in response to an order Monday from a Broward judge, just focus on Peterson’s actions.
No videos from other angles or other parts of the campus were released. Although the videos released Thursday show other officers arriving, it’s hard to see what agencies they’re from and what they are 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.
At the time, according to the agency’s timeline, Peterson over his police radio said: “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 occurred. 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.
After Peterson took up his position, Cruz kept shooting inside the 1200 building for an additional four minutes before getting rid of his gun and fleeing, the Sheriff ’s Office said.
Peterson maintained his position against the wall until just after 2:50 p.m. By that time, Cruz, having slipped unnoticed off campus, was walking into a Walmart nearby. He would be arrested on a nearby road at 3:40 p.m. The attack left 17 dead and 17 wounded.
The sheriff has been harshly critical of Peterson, saying at a press conference Feb. 22 that he should have “went in. Addressed the killer. Killed the killer.” The sheriff ’s office said little more on Thursday.
“The video speaks for itself,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a statement accompanying the video release. “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.”
Peterson has been subjected to national condemnation and ridicule for his actions, or non-actions, that
His lawyer, Joseph DiRuzzo, issued a statement two weeks ago challenging this narrative, saying Peterson took up a “tactical position” against the wall of building seven, the appropriate move from his perspective, since he thought shots may have been fired outside.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement, at the request of Gov. Rick Scott, has opened an investigation into the law enforcement response to the shooting.