This is incomprehensible to me that an an armed officer was on site AND DID NOTHING to stop the shooter. One would think this is more than an offense over which one ‘resigns.’ I still can’t wrap my head around this.

Via Sun-Sentinel.

The police officer assigned to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School resigned Thursday, under investigation for failing to enter the building as a gunman opened fire and killed 17 people.

Sheriff Scott Israel said Deputy Scot Peterson should have “went in. Addressed the killer. Killed the killer.”

Video footage showed Peterson did none of that, Israel said.

“What I saw was a deputy arrive … take up a position and he never went in,” the sheriff said at a news conference.

Israel said Peterson resigned, and subsequently retired, after Israel suspended him without pay earlier in the day. An investigation into Peterson will continue, the sheriff said.

Peterson, 54, came under scrutiny after 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz entered the school with an AR-15 rifle and killed 14 students and three educators on Valentine’s Day.

The sheriff said Peterson was outside the building for “upwards of four minutes” while the shooting was taking place. “There are no words. I mean these families lost their children. We lost coaches,” Israel said.

Peterson has been a school resource officer at Stoneman Douglas since 2009. He began working for the sheriff’s office in 1985 and his annual salary in 2016 was $75,673.72, according to sheriff’s office records.

The agency also announced that it was placing two officers on a restricted assignment during a separate investigation into how they handled earlier calls involving Cruz or his family members.

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6 Comments | Leave a comment
  1. IloiloKano says:

    What he did, or FAILED to do, was criminal. But very likely he will be allowed to retire without a single criminal charge filed. If a marine failed to come to the aid of his fellow marines because he was crapping his pants, and as a result 17 marines DIED, that marine would be court-martialed for dereliction of duty resulting in the deaths of fellow marines. My question is this. Why shouldn’t that deputy face criminal charges? If he escapes criminal charges, the families of those dead teens should sue him into lifelong bankruptcy in civil court. I am SO angry now!

  2. Alain41 says:

    On Twitter, the liberal discussion is; 1) Don’t go into an unknown situation before backup arrives, and 2) if he was so scared to go in then that proves that armed teachers won’t be able to respond appropriately.

    I can’t believe that his training/instruction is wait for backup in active shooting situation. I would think it would be, call for backup and then proceed to end situation. But that needs to be checked. Re armed teachers, besides training, if someone is firing at you, returning fire is easy.

    Tragically, the LEO failed.

    • Vintageport says:

      One LEO failed to act courageously. This is why we need to establish sheriff substations on campuses manned by multiple retired LEOs and military. Pre-fabricated buildings, which exist on many school grounds already, can be converted into offices for these security agents. Their mere presence will deter most, if not all, evil-doers. End Gun-Free zones once and for all.

  3. Maynard says:

    If the FBI could fail to respond to reports of an upcoming school shooter, it only follows that the local sheriff would likewise fail to respond to reports of a current school shooter. So the people who failed to do their jobs and left a pile of bodies in their wake will cash their checks and go their merry ways, and then the politicians make noises to imply that I’m the problem (gotta blame someone!), and therefore they need to come after me. Because nobody else is ever responsible for everything, whereas a “deplorable” is responsible for every ill of the world.

  4. Maynard says:

    Now we have Enterprise car rentals weighing in. NRA has been removed from their discount list. See Tammy’s tweet.

    I wouldn’t care about the silly discounts that are always coming and going, but this is merely taking a moment to stand up and say, “We don’t like you” to a block of people for their support of a civil rights cause. Aside from being a rotten thing to do, it seems a lousy business decision. Why does everything have to be political? Why can’t we just watch a ball game, buy a cup of coffee, rent a car, without getting somebody’s holier-than-thou virtue shoved in our faces?

    • Alain41 says:

      I remember Steve Jobs did not want to lobby or be involved with Congress. But politicians (McCain?) kept hounding Jobs to get involved with Congress. Congress (politicians) doesn’t want to be separate from business & citizens interactions. Sadly, Mission Accomplished.

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