Records: Deputy heard shots inside, but stayed outside
PARKLAND — A Broward County sheriff ’s deputy who stood outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School while students and staff members were being shot Feb. 14 didn’t go inside despite hearing gunfire coming from within the building where the mass shooting took place, records show.
On police radio dispatches released by the sheriff ’s office, Scot Peterson can be heard referring to gunshots inside Building 12, where 17 people were killed. He stays outside the building for several minutes and advises other deputies to stay 500 feet away, even after the shooting had stopped.
That contradicts a statement Peterson, a suburban Boynton Beach resident, made Feb. 26 through his attorney in which he insisted the shooting was happening outside by the school’s football field and not from Building 12.
In that statement, the former deputy said he “heard gunshots but believed those gunshots were originating from outside of the buildings on the school campus,”
causing him to take a “tactical position” outside.
But Peterson can be clearly heard informing a dispatcher that gunfire was happening “inside.” Broward Sheriff Scott Israel had said Peterson should have entered the building and engaged Nikolas Cruz , the 19-yearold gunman.
“Be advised we have possible, could be firecrackers, I think we have shots fired, possible shots fire — 1200 building,” Peterson tells the dispatcher as he takes a posi- tion on the southeast corner of the building, about two minutes after Cruz began firing an AR-15.
Cruz killed 14 students and three staff members and injured 17 others before he was arrested more than an hour after the shootings. He is being held without bond in Broward County on 17 counts of first-degree murder.
About two minutes after arriving outside Building 12, Peterson tells the dispatcher, “I hear shots fired.”
Another minute goes by before Cruz dropped his weapon and walked outside Building 12. Around 25 seconds after Cruz leaves, Peterson tells other officers on his radio to stay back.
“Do not approach the 12 or 1300 building. Stay at least 500 feet away at this point,” Peterson said.
A second-by-second time- line released by the sher- iff ’s office Thursday states that Peterson is shown on the school’s video-surveillance positioning himself in a corridor between Build- ing 12 and a second building at 2:23:44.
“He appears to remain in this area for the duration of the incident,” according to the timeline. Peterson remains in place at 2:26:40 when he yells into his police radio of hearing gunshots.
Cruz ceases firing his AR-15 at 2:27:30, according to the timeline. A few seconds later, Peterson warns officers to keep 500 feet from the building.
Peterson is last mentioned on the timeline at 2:31:19, saying: “We’re in total lock- down right now. Nobody’s leaving the school. Everybody’s in lockdown.”
By that time, Cruz had walked out of Building 12 and was on his way to a Subway sandwich shop inside a nearby Walmart, where he bought a drink.
Israel said Peterson should have followed the agency’s protocol by entering the building and engaging Cruz in order to stop him. Peterson, Israel said, should have “went in. Addressed the killer. Killed the killer.”
Israel said Peterson “clearly” knew the shoot- ing was taking place while he waited outside.
Israel suspended Peterson, 54, without pay a few days after the shooting, but the veteran deputy responded by retiring.
In a statement released Feb. 25, Peterson’s attorney, Joseph DiRuzzo, disputed Israel’s interpretation of BSO policy, stating that the agency “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 with other law enforcement.” DiRuzzo could not be reached for comment Friday. Efforts by The Post to reach Peterson since the shooting have been unsuccessful.
Two other deputies — Edward Eason and Guntis Treijs — were put on “restrictive duty” while an internal investigation examines whether they should have done more to stop Cruz. Eason lives in Lake Worth. Peterson has been widely vilified for his response, including from President Donald Trump who called the former deputy “a coward.”
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the performance of all police agencies that took part in response to the shootings.
Cruz lived in Palm Beach County for a couple of weeks in November following the death of his mother, staying at a mobile home in suburban Lantana belonging to Rocxanne Deschamps, a former neighbor of his family in Parkland. His stay at the Lantana Cascade park, however, was long enough for the teen to become familiar with local law enforcement. In one incident Nov. 28, a woman believed to be Deschamps told Palm Beach County sheriff ’s deputies that Cruz had threatened to kill her and her 22-year-old son. The next day, deputies were back at the mobile home after Cruz got into a fight with Deschamps’ son.
A family friend told The Palm Beach Post that Cruz was made to leave Deschamps’ home after his insistence on bringing weapons into the residence.