POLK COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said he’s “disappointed” after it was announced that a former Florida deputy was acquitted of all charges for failing to act during the deadly Parkland school shooting.
“I truly believe our jury system is the best in the world, but I’m certainly disappointed today,” Sheriff Judd said during an interview.
Jurors deliberated for 19 hours over four days, and on Thursday, they ruled that former Broward County Deputy Scot Peterson would be acquitted of felony child neglect and other charges.
“Children are dead today because Scot Peterson, who was paid, by the people, to protect those children, failed. He was a coward then; he’s a coward now,” Judd said.
“I know clearly and unequivocally that he did not respond, and children died, and Scot Peterson had the nerve to say after the trial today, ‘I’ve got my life back after four and a half years,’ but children don’t have their life back, and that’s a shame,” he continued.
The deadly mass shooting occurred on Feb. 14, 2018, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, when shooter Nikolas Cruz opened fire for six minutes inside the school, claiming the lives of 17 people.
According to the Associated Press, Peterson could have received a nearly 100-year prison sentence. He could have also lost his $104,000 annual pension.
“When you deliver your children to school in the morning, they become our children, and it’s our obligation to return them to you safe and sound after school like you deliver them to us when the school day started. We take it very seriously. Scot Peterson didn’t take it seriously. He allowed children to needlessly die, to be murdered, to be slaughtered. He was a coward,” Judd said.
During the trial, Peterson’s attorney, Mark Eiglarsh, argued that the former deputy was unable to locate Cruz’s location during the shooting because of “echoes.” However, prosecutors called a training supervisor, who testified that Peterson “did not follow protocols for confronting an active shooter.”
AP reported that Eiglarsh emphasized that the failure of the sheriff’s radio system during the shooting “limited what Peterson heard from arriving deputies.”
Security footage showed that 36 seconds after Cruz began shooting, Peterson left his office about 1000 yards from the 1200 building, where witnesses said they heard the shooting come from, and “jumped into a cart with two unarmed civilian security guards.”
AP said Peterson then got out of the cart near the east doorway while Cruz was at the opposite end of the hallway, firing his AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle.
During the attack, the former deputy was not wearing a bulletproof vest and didn’t open the door, but instead, took cover 75 feet away with his gun still drawn. The outlet said he stayed there for 40 minutes, long after the shooting ended and other officers stormed the building.
According to AP, Peterson spent nearly 30 years working at schools, including nine years at Stoneman Douglas. After the shooting, he retired but was eventually fired retroactively.
Last year, the shooter, Cruz, was sentenced to life without parole after a jury voted 9-3 to sentence him to death. Due to Florida law, a unanimous vote is required for the death penalty to be imposed.
