An American police officer, who was on trial for "culpable negligence" because he had taken cover during a shooting at a Florida high school, was acquitted Thursday of all charges against him.
Scot Peterson, 60, was accused of failing to stop Nikolas Cruz who, armed with a semi-automatic rifle, shot dead 14 students and three adults at his former high school on February 14, 2018 in Parkland.
«I get my life back»
After four days of deliberation, jurors found him "not guilty." When the verdict was read, he broke down in tears. "I get my life back," he told the media outside court, while his lawyer Mark Eiglarsh regretted that he had to live "four years of grief and distress". "Tell me about suffering!" said Manuel Oliver, whose son Joaquin died in the bloodbath. Scot Peterson "obviously made a mistake" and "should keep a low profile," he added on CNN.
According to the prosecution, the Parkland High School security officer was sheltered "in an alcove" for 48 minutes instead of going in search of the shooter. Scot Peterson always claimed to have stayed outside the building, because he did not know where the shots came from. At the bar, his lawyer presented him as a "scapegoat" in this drama that had strongly shaken America. His trial was closely monitored because it could have set a precedent.
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The National Association of Officers Deployed in Schools (Nasro) told AFP it had never recorded prosecutions against police officers who remained passive during a shooting or violence in schools. If Scot Peterson had been convicted, other police officers could have been charged, including those deployed during the Uvalde elementary school shooting in Texas, where 19 children and two teachers were killed in May 2022.
Dozens of them had waited more than an hour outside the classrooms where the shooter had holed up. For his part, Nikolas Cruz pleaded guilty and was sentenced in 2022 to life imprisonment by a jury, which ruled out the death penalty after three months of gruelling hearings.