Florida school deputy says he thought gunfire was outside
MIAMI — The only armed sheriff ’s deputy on campus during the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., disputed on Monday that he violated police protocol by not entering the building to hunt down the gunman, and rebuked the sheriff for portraying him as a “coward.”
Scot Peterson, a former deputy with the Broward County Sheriff ’s Office, said in a statement released by his lawyer that he thought the gunfire originated from outside and reacted accordingly by waiting for the suspect there.
The sheriff ’s office “trains its officers that in the event of outdoor gunfire one is to seek cover and assess the situation in order to communicate what one observes to other law enforcement,” said Peterson’s lawyer, Joseph DiRuzzo.
His statement appeared to contradict the sheriff, Scott Israel, who said this past week that Peterson should have immediately charged the building instead of taking a position outside for more than four minutes while the shooting was taking place. Israel characterized Peterson’s inaction as doing “nothing.”
Peterson should have “went in, addressed the killer, killed the killer,” Israel said.
“Let there be no mistake, Mr. Peterson wishes that he could have prevented the untimely passing of the 17 victims on that day, and his heart goes out to the families of the victims in their time of need,” DiRuzzo said in a statement. “However, the allegations that Mr. Peterson was a coward and that his performance, under the circumstances, failed to meet the standards of police officers are patently untrue.”
It is unclear why Peterson nevertheless chose to retire Thursday after Israel placed him under internal investigation. Israel has said the investigation will continue despite the deputy’s departure.
The office’s active shooter protocol says that on-scene deputies, without approval from a supervisor, “may” engage the gunman. That appears to give deputies discretion, but only to a point: They “may” choose not to go in if they know a door is armed with a large explosive device, for example, or if they know the only way into a building has a dangerous suspect immediately on the other side ready to shoot the deputy, Col. Jim Polan explained in written responses to questions.
Otherwise, deputies are expected to prioritize the lives of victims by trying to confront the gunman as quickly as possible.
Israel said that, on the day of the massacre, it appeared the shooting had begun and then continued outside the building, and that three people had died outside the school. But on Monday, his office said, “The shooting occurred inside.”
Peterson initially received a call of “firecrackers — and not gunfire” near the freshman building, the statement from his lawyer said.
The deputy and a school security specialist, Kelvin Greenleaf, left the building they were in and ran a couple of hundred yards north, according to DiRuzzo’s account. Once there, Peterson “took up a tactical position” in the corridor between two other buildings and was the first to advise the sheriff ’s office dispatch that he heard gunshots. Peterson also initiated a “code red” to put the entire school on lockdown.