Outing ‘coward’
Dad of Fla. school victim sues do-nothing cop
ANDREW POLLACK, the father of one of the 17 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting victims, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against former Broward Sheriff Deputy Scot Peterson, gunman Nikolas Cruz and several others.
Peterson, who was the Parkland school’s resource officer at the time of the Feb.14 attack, has come under immense public criticism for failing to enter the building while the shooting was taking place.
Pollack’s suit, filed in Broward Circuit Court on Monday, also listed as defendants the estate of Lynda Cruz, James Snead, Kimberly Snead, Henderson Behavioral Health, Jerome Golden Center for Behavioral Health and South County Mental Health Center.
The wrongful death lawsuit is seeking unspecified damages and a trial by jury. “I’m not interested in any money,” said Pollack (above), whose 18-year-old daughter Meadow (inset) was killed. “I just want to expose what a coward (Peterson) was and that he could’ve saved everybody on the third floor. I don’t want him to go anywhere in the country and not have people recognize what a coward he is.”
Peterson, a 33-year law enforcement veteran, resigned from the Broward sheriff’s office on Feb. 23 after video footage showed he never entered the building after the gunman opened fire inside. Sheriff Scott Israel condemned Peterson’s inaction, saying the resource officer should have “went in. Addressed the killer. Killed the killer.”
President Trump also called Peterson a coward who “certainly did a poor job.”
The suit details Peterson’s inaction from the moment Cruz stepped into the building, stating that Peterson was the only person armed and trained to deal with an active shooter.
Of the other defendants named in the suit, Kimberly and James Snead took Cruz into their home following the death of his mother, Lynda, on Nov. 1. Cruz was living with the family when he carried out his attack at Stoneman Douglas.
The lawsuit alleges Henderson Health and Jerome Golden Center for Behavioral Heath knew or should have known that Cruz suffered from mental illness and was a threat to others. THE YOUNGER brother of accused Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz was back behind bars Tuesday, authorities said. Zachary Cruz, 18, is on probation for trespassing at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on March 19, police said. Cruz (photo) violated his probation by driving within 25 feet of a Park Vista Community High School parking lot in Lake Worth, about 26 miles north of Parkland, where the Valentine’s Day massacre happened, the Sun-Sentinel reported. Cruz did not have a valid driver’s license, according to the newspaper.