Vilified deputy a no-show at Parkland hearing
SUNRISE, Fla. — For months, members of the panel investigating Florida’s high school massacre have called the deputy sheriff assigned to guard the campus “a coward” for hiding and not rushing inside in an attempt to stop the shooter.
Given an opportunity to confront his critics Thursday, now-retired Broward Deputy Scot Peterson sent his attorney instead before the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission. Attorney Joseph DiRuzzo III told the 14-member panel he had filed a lawsuit hours earlier attempting to block their subpoena of his client. DiRuzzo dropped a copy on the lectern and then walked away.
Fred Guttenberg, whose child Jaime died along with 16 others, said to DiRuzzo as he passed: “He didn’t do his job. My daughter should be alive.”
Peterson, the longtime deputy assigned to Stoneman Douglas, has become the second-mostvilified person surrounding Jennifer Montalto, the mother of victim Gina Montaldo, tears up as she watches videos from the school shooting during a meeting Thursday of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission in Sunrise, Fla.
the Feb. 14 shooting after suspect Nikolas Cruz.
Security video shows Peterson arrived outside the three-story building where the killings happened shortly after the shooting began, about the same time the gunman finished slaying 11 people on the first-floor. Peterson drew his handgun but retreated to cover next to the neighboring building. The video shows Peterson never left that spot for 50 minutes, even after other deputies and police officers arrived on campus and went inside.
Panel members have said they believe Peterson’s inaction allowed Cruz to climb to the third floor, where five students, including Jamie Guttenberg, and one teacher were killed. They believe if Peterson, 55, had confronted Cruz and engaged him in a shootout, he could have killed him or given others more time to reach safety.
“Other than the person sitting in a jail cell right now for murdering my daughter, the only other person who comes close to pissing me off as much is Peterson because Peterson could have saved my daughter. My daughter was the second-to-last to be shot ... a few more seconds and she would be alive,” Fred Guttenberg told The Associated Press after DiRuzzo left.
Peterson, a decorated 32-year veteran of the sheriff’s office, retired shortly after the shooting rather than accept a suspension while his actions were investigated. He is now receiving a $100,000 annual pension. There had been speculation Peterson might attend the meeting but invoke the Fifth Amendment, as a criminal investigation of law enforcement’s response continues.
Peterson told investigators shortly after the shooting that he heard only two or three shots and didn’t know whether they were coming from inside the building.
That is contradicted by radio calls in which he correctly identifies the building as the shooter’s location. Bullets also came out a window almost directly above where he took cover. About 150 shots were fired and were heard by others a quarter-mile away.
Cruz, a 20-year-old former Stoneman Douglas student, is charged with the slayings. He has pleaded not guilty, but his attorneys have said he would plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
The panel has been meeting periodically since April. It’s required to file a report by Jan. 1 to Florida Gov. Rick Scott on its findings on the shooting’s causes and recommendations for avoiding future school massacres.
Cruz will be back in court Friday afternoon to face a charge of aggravated assault on an officer. He is accused of fighting with a deputy Tuesday in a Broward County jail.
Deputies say Cruz flipped his middle finger at Sgt. Raymond Beltran, then punched him in the head, wrestled him to the ground and tried to take his stun gun to shock him.
Beltran regained control of the Taser and punched Cruz in the face. After that, Cruz sat down in a dayroom chair, the report said.