Fla. deputy’s legal team says he didn’s have obligation to stop Parkland school shooter

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A former Florida sheriff's deputy is claiming he had no legal duty to confront the gunman who murdered 17 people and wounded 17 others at Parkland's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School nearly six years ago, his attorney argued Monday.

The legal team representing Broward County Deputy Scot Peterson asked a judge to dismiss the lawsuit brought by the victims' families and survivors, even though the decision would likely be derided by the public.

Attorney Michael Piper told Circuit Judge CarolLisa Phillips that under the law, his client cannot be sued for anything he did or didn't do during the Feb. 14, 2018, massacre. He cited appellate court cases that say police officers don't have a legal obligation to protect others from third-party harm and cannot be sued for decisions they make during a crisis.

Piper said that while it might not be a popular decision, the judge must uphold the law and throw out the lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages. There are also suits filed against Broward Sheriff's Office and two school security guards.

Gunman Nikolas Cruz, a 25-year-old former Stoneman Douglas student, is serving a life sentence for the murders and attempted murders.

“There is a difference between legal duty and what I guess I'll call societal expectations,” the attorney for the sheriff's deputy argued. All the public will hear is that Peterson was in uniform and had a gun, he said, yet “When faced with this murderous rampage going on in this three-story building, he doesn't have a duty to stop it?"

"People are outraged," Piper said, of the notion that a law enforcement officer doesn't have a duty. "Yes, that is exactly what we are saying. That is exactly what the law is.”

But attorneys David Brill and Joel Perwin, representing the families and survivors, told the judge that Peterson's actions both during and before the shooting fall outside the law's protections because they were made in bad faith and with willful negligence.

Perwin said that according to Piper's argument, Florida police officers could not be sued if they kept walking when they witnessed a robber attacking a liquor store clerk. Piper countered that while that might be unpalatable to the public, that is legally correct.

Brill said Peterson knew that Cruz was nicknamed “Crazy Boy” by campus security guards when he was a student two years before the shooting — and that he was considered by school staff to be the one person who could shoot up the school.

Yet, he did not have Cruz committed for mental treatment before the shooting, Brill argued. And just before the shooting — when Peterson learned Cruz had been spotted back on campus carrying a bag and backpack — the deputy didn't order an immediate lock down.

“His primary reason for being there was for the safety, health and welfare of the students and the faculty,” Brill said of Peterson. “He had a duty to protect the administration, the teachers and students to a variety of unreasonable risks, including active shooters.”