The former police officer accused of failing to confront the killer who killed 17 people at a Florida high school during one of the most serious school shootings in the United States was found not guilty Thursday of the 11 charges against him related to the 2018 massacre.
Scot Petersen, a former Broward County Sheriff's Office deputy, was charged with seven counts of child neglect, three counts of culpable negligence and one count of perjury for failing to confront the shooter who five years ago murdered 14 students and three staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
The jury deliberated for four days. Peterson had pleaded not guilty to all charges. As the verdict was read Thursday, the former officer cried with his lawyer, while some relatives of the victims, present in the courtroom, visibly rejected the decision.
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It's the first time a law enforcement officer has been tried in connection with a school shooting in the United States.
During the trial, prosecutors and Peterson's attorney debated what the former officer heard, saw and knew during the six-minute mass shooting on Feb. 14, 2018.
Peterson, 60, was charged with failing to confront former student Nikolas Cruz before he reached the third floor of the 1200 building, where six of the victims died.
Scot Peterson during the trial at Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on June 26, 2023.Amy Beth Bennett / AP
Prosecutors, during their two-week presentation, called students, teachers and law enforcement officers to the stand who testified about the horror they experienced and how they knew where Cruz was.
Some said they knew for sure the shots were coming from the school's 1200 building. Prosecutors also called a training supervisor who testified that Peterson did not follow protocols for dealing with an active shooter.
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Prosecutor Kristen Gomes told jurors that Peterson may have located and detained Nikolas Cruz as he carried out his attack. But instead of opening a door, looking out a window or seeking information from fleeing students, he chose to take refuge next to an adjoining building, Gomes said. That prevented him from confronting Cruz before he reached the third floor, where six of Cruz's 17 murders were committed.
Even if he hadn't killed Cruz, his presence would have distracted him, giving students and teachers time to flee or hide, or cause him to surrender or kill himself, he said.
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"Choose to enter or choose to flee? Scot Peterson chose to flee," Gomes said. "When the defendant fled, he left behind an unrestrained killer who spent the next four minutes and 15 seconds wandering the halls at ease. Because when Scot Peterson fled, he left them in a building with an uncontrolled predator."
During his two-day presentation, Peterson's attorney, Mark Eiglarsh, called several sheriff's deputies who arrived during the shooting and students and teachers who testified they did not believe the shots came from the 1200 building.
Peterson, who did not testify, has said that, because of the echoes, he could not pinpoint the shooter's location.
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Eiglarsh also emphasized the failure of the sheriff's radio system during the attack, which allegedly limited what Peterson could hear from arriving deputies.
Security videos show that 36 seconds after Cruz's attack began, Peterson left his office about 100 yards from the 1200 building and got into a car with two unarmed civilian security guards. They arrived at the building a minute later.
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Peterson got out of the vehicle near the east door of the first-floor hallway. Cruz was at the opposite end of the hall, firing his AR-15 semiautomatic rifle. Peterson, who was wearing a bulletproof vest, did not open the door. Instead, he took refuge 15 meters away, in the bedroom of a neighboring building, with the gun still drawn.
He remained there for 40 minutes, long after the shooting ended and other police officers had stormed the building.
Peterson faced nearly 100 years in prison if convicted.
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Peterson had worked in schools for nearly three decades, including nine years at Stoneman Douglas. He retired shortly after the shooting and was fired retroactively.
Cruz's jury could not reach unanimous agreement on whether he deserved the death penalty. The 24-year-old former Stoneman Douglas student was sentenced to life in prison.