Miami, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, a former high school security officer, was arrested Tuesday after being accused of child neglect, culpable negligence and perjury in connection with the school shooting in which 17 people were killed in February. 2018
In all, Scot Peterson, the only armed officer on the premises during the massacre, was charged with eleven counts of his refusal to intervene during the shooting that Nikolas Cruz perpetrated at this school in South Florida, the Florida Department of Enforcement said. Law (FDLE, in its acronym in English) in a statement.
FDLE Commissioner Rick Swearingen said there is no “excuse” for Peterson’s “complete inaction,” which “definitely cost lives.”
Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony said in the same statement that the facts point to “it’s never too late for responsibility and justice” and that his actions during the killing “clearly justified termination of employment and charges criminal. “
Peterson was the security officer at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and, according to FDLE, the investigation shows that he refused to investigate the source of the shooting, did not intervene during the shooting and also ordered other authorities who came to the scene to they will remain 500 feet away from the building.
During the investigation, the FDLE agents interviewed 184 witnesses and reviewed numerous hours of video from the security cameras of that February 14, 2018, when Cruz entered his old school armed with an assault rifle with which he killed 17 people, 14 of them students.
Peterson was arrested at the Broward Sheriff’s Office and entered the main Broward County jail.
In December 2018, during a trial hearing against Peterson following the lawsuit filed by the family of Meadow Pollack, one of the fatalities, his defense attorney, Michael Piper, indicated that, “from a legal point of view, there was no duty “for the agent to act to try to stop Cruz.
Tony also announced the dismissal, also for “neglecting his professional duties,” from Sergeant Brian Miller, the first agent to arrive at the scene of the crime.
According to the investigation of a state commission, Miller arrived in time to hear three or four shots, but instead of taking command of the operations he protected himself behind his car and did not coordinate his companions by refraining from communicating by radio in the following ten minutes after your arrival.
“We can not live up to our commitment to always protect the safety and security of our Broward County community without making a thorough assessment of what went wrong that day,” said Tony, who said his response protocol has improved. shooting (EFEUSA)
