Disgraced former Broward Sheriff’s Office Deputy Scot Peterson, described as “coward” by US President Donald Trump for not acting in the Parkland school shooting that killed 17 people, was arrested on charges of negligence.
Former BSO deputy Scot Peterson, 56, was arrested Monday on seven counts of child neglect, three counts of culpable negligence, and one count of perjury, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) spokesman said in a statement.
Peterson “did absolutely nothing to mitigate the MSD shooting that killed 17 children, teachers and employees and wounded 17 others,” said FDLE Commissioner Rick Swearingen. “There can be no excuses for their complete inaction nor can it be questioned that this inaction cost lives,” he added.
Upon hearing the news, Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter Jamie died in the shooting, said Petersen could “rot in hell.” “You could have saved one of the 17. You could have saved my daughter, you did not do anything and then you lied and now you deserve the misery that is coming,” he wrote on Twitter.
See Arrest Warrant Here
Gregory Tony, the new Broward County sheriff said in the statement that “it’s never too late to be accountable and do justice.”
According to the statement, Peterson did not investigate where the shots came from and hid while a former student identified as Nikolas Cruz massacred 17 people, including students and teachers. He also recommended other deputies who arrived at the crime scene to remain far from the building.
In March of last year, when the first of the videos was released, Trump publicly accused him of being a coward and said he would have entered the school if he had been in his place. Peterson reacted then through a lawyer assuring that his actions were adjusted to the protocol, position that has maintained until now.
