The former Florida police officer who was accused of failing to confront the person responsible for the 2018 Parkland school shooting has been found not guilty.
Scot Peterson, 60, was charged with seven counts of child neglect, three counts of culpable negligence and one count of perjury, for his behavior during the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where he 14 students and three teachers died.
If found guilty, he faced a sentence of almost 100 years in prison.
Peterson, the only armed officer at the school during the shooting, was charged for his failure to respond to events on the third floor of the 1200 building, where six of the 14 fatalities died.
Los Security videos show that the former officer, wearing a bulletproof vest, arrived at the building with the weapon in hand before the murderer Nikolas Cruz arrived on that floor; but instead of going in, when the shots rang out He didn’t open the door and walked back.
He went to another nearby building and stayed there for 40 minutes, even after the massacre had ended and other policemen had arrived on the scene.
Peterson did not testify during the trial, but had previously said that because of the echoes, He couldn’t tell where the shots came from.but never acted thinking of not facing the attacker.
On Thursday, as the verdict was read, the former officer cried along with his lawyer. For his part, relatives of the victims showed their rejection by shaking their heads.
Peterson was arrested in June 2019.. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) then maintained that in addition to refusing to investigate the source of the shots and did not intervene in the shooting, it ordered other authorities who arrived on the scene to remain 500 feet from the building.
after a few days He was released after posting $39,500 bail.
months before there was said he was not legally required to intervene during the shooting.
“From a legal standpoint, there was no duty,” said his attorney Michael Piper.
This is the first time a police officer has been tried in connection with a school shooting in the United States.
