Armed deputy didn’t confront attacker
Sheriff says he’s ‘sick to my stomach’ over inaction
An armed school deputy rushed to the Florida high school building where terrified students ran from a killer with a semiautomatic rifle, but he didn’t go inside.
The school resource deputy for Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Scot Peterson, was under investigation for his response to the shooting, then decided to resign his post, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said Thursday.
Two other deputies are under investigation after a review of law enforcement calls involving accused gunman Nikolas Cruz spurred questions on whether the deputies followed the department’s policies.
“It’s devastating,” Israel said during a news conference Thursday. “I’m sick to my stomach. These families lost children, we lost coaches.”
Peterson, 54, started working for the Broward County Sheriff ’s Office in 1985. Since 2009, he had been a school resource officer at the high school, working to keep its students safe, according to the Sun Sentinel.
Israel said surveillance footage showed Peterson responding to the building where the shooting was unfolding.
The sheriff said the deputy got there within a minute and a half of when the gunfire started. He positioned himself outside the building but never went in, Israel said.
The shooting lasted a total of six minutes. Peterson was outside the building for four of those minutes, Israel said. Seventeen people were killed.
He should have “went in, addressed the killer, killed the killer,” Israel said.
Modern active-shooter procedures were changed after the Columbine High School shooting in 1999. Before that, officers were trained to wait for SWAT units to respond and take out a threat. The officers who responded to Columbine allowed the suspects to continue their rampage without being challenged. Thirteen people were killed.
Officers are now trained to go toward gunfire, even if they are alone and outgunned, because research has shown the presence of law enforcement can slow down or stop a suspect, potentially bringing the death toll down and preventing deaths.
“When we in law enforcement arrive to an active shooter, we go in and address the target, and that’s what should have been done,” Israel said.
Responding alone could be deadly. A study by Texas State University of 84 active-shooter incidents from 2000 to 2010 found that 33% of officers who faced an active gunman alone were shot.
According to the Department of Justice, most shootings are over within five minutes and the first officers who arrive at the scene of an active shooter can save lives.