It was February 14, 2018 when former student Nikolas Cruz shot and killed three teachers and 14 of students, injuring an additional 17 other people at the Parkland High School where the shooting took place. Last October, he was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, though many of the victims' families, as well as Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), felt he deserved the death penalty. On Thursday, many felt once more that justice was denied when Scot Peterson, then a school resource officer where the shooting took place, was found not guilty of criminal charges on child negligence and culpable negligence.
Peterson gained public attention and notoriety in the aftermath of the deadly shooting, as he stood outside while students and teachers were being shot and killed. He was then later charged. As if the man didn't give off enough bad vibes, a CNN report about the verdict tells you what you need to know.
As the report mentions, with added emphasis:
Scot Peterson, 60, took off his glasses and wept in court as the judge read the verdict, which found him not guilty of seven counts of felony child neglect, three counts of culpable negligence and one count of perjury.
“I’ve got my life back,” Peterson, a former deputy for the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, told reporters outside court, describing the years since the shooting as “an emotional roller coaster.”
The first part of that is particularly tone deaf, since the people who don't get their lives back are those victims--mostly teens with their lives ahead of them--who were shot and killed inside the school that Peterson stood outside of.
CNN goes on to summarize what both sides made the case about:
State prosecutors accused Peterson of ignoring his training and doing nothing as 17 people, including 14 students, were gunned down at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in what remains the deadliest US high school shooting ever. His attorney argued the then-deputy didn’t enter the school’s 1200 building, the site of the attack, because he couldn’t tell where the shots were coming from.
“The only person to blame was that monster,” Peterson said of the shooter. “It wasn’t any law enforcement, nobody on that scene, from BSO, Coral Springs. Everybody did the best they could. We did the best we could with the information we had, and God knows we wish we had more at that point.”
The seven counts of felony child neglect and three counts of culpable negligence each stemmed from the deaths and injuries of eight students – seven of them minors – and two school employees on the third floor of the 1200 building: Teacher Scott Beigel and students Meadow Pollack, Jaime Guttenberg, Cara Loughran, Joaquin Oliver and Peter Wang all were killed, while teacher Stacey Lippel and students Anthony Borges, Kyle Laman and Marian Kabachenko were wounded and survived.
Peterson was not charged in connection with the victims on the first floor because he had not yet arrived on scene; no one was killed on the second floor.
He faced a perjury charge for telling investigators afterward that he didn’t see students fleeing the 1200 building and that he heard only two or three gunshots after arriving at the scene while other witnesses said they’d heard more. The state claimed the evidence showed both statements were untrue.
The case was notable, in part, for the state’s decision to bring the child neglect charges under a Florida statute that governs caregivers, arguing Peterson as a school resource officer had a duty to protect the students. The defense had argued Peterson did not qualify as a caregiver because he was a law enforcement officer. That determination was ultimately left up to the jury, which deliberated for more than 19 hours.
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The report also mentions Peterson's remarks as well. "This is not just a victory for Scot, it’s a victory for every law enforcement officer in this country who does the best they can do every single day," Peterson's attorney, Mark Eiglarsh said on Thursday as well. "How dare prosecutors try to second-guess the actions of honorable, decent police officers."
We get that he's speaking about the prosecutors, but there are victims and their families who feel betrayed by the verdict. No doubt such remarks didn't do anything to ease their pain. The report goes on to next mention them:
The outcome, however, was another disappointment for some of the victims’ families, many of whom were upset by a jury’s decision last year not to unanimously recommend the death penalty for the shooter. He is serving a sentence of life in prison without parole after pleading guilty to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder.
“It’s another failure. The system did it again and again and again,” Manuel Oliver, the father of Joaquin, told CNN “News Central” Thursday.
“I’m watching this individual crying like a victim. He signed for a job that he did not deliver. Shame on him for that, too,” he added.
Linda Beigel-Schulman, the mother of slain teacher Scott Beigel, told CNN’s Alisyn Camerota she believes if Peterson had done “something, anything – the murderer would have never have made it to the third floor.”
“I guess Scot Peterson believes that doing nothing is synonymous with doing no wrong. He may not have been found legally responsible, but there’s no doubt that he’s morally responsible,” she said.
Fred Guttenberg, the father of Parkland shooting victim Jaime Guttenberg, said on Twitter Thursday he felt that if Peterson had done “anything at all,” he may have helped save his daughter.
“While Peterson and his attorney Mark Eiglarsh celebrate him getting his life back, they must always remember that my daughter was murdered because he didn’t even try to prevent it,” Guttenberg wrote. “My daughter is dead because (Scot) Peterson failed to give her the additional single second that she needed entering the stairwell on the 3rd floor.
“My wife and I will move forward from this, but we will never have our life back, Jaime will never get her life back and Jaime will always be a victim of (Peterson’s) failure.”
...
Victims’ families, still reeling from the shooter’s life sentence, expressed disbelief at the verdict Thursday.
“We don’t understand how this jury looked at the evidence that was presented and found him not guilty,” said Tony Montalto, the father of 14-year-old victim Gina Montalto, who was killed on the first floor of the 1200 building. His faith in the justice system, he said, was “shaken.”
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Darren Levine, a teacher who survived the 2018 shooting, told CNN he felt “very deflated for the families of the victims and the students and teachers who were called back to testify after all these years.”
“With these past two trials, I feel like the MSD community hasn’t been heard by the legal system,” Levine said. “It’s another sad day.”
Such is the verdict in the court of law. Peterson was innocent until proven guilty, and he was found not guilty. Jim Thompson also provided thoughtful analysis for our sister site at RedState raising issue with the jury instructions. "Yes, in my estimation Mr. Peterson acted cowardly, and should have been fired and scorned for his failure to do anything--but that doesn’t mean that he was, pursuant to a criminal statute, criminally liable for child neglect," Thompson offered. Thompson also pointed to how when it comes to what officers are required to do, "[t]here is no 'duty of care' owed to the general public."
The court of public opinion is another story, however, with our friends at Twitchy highlighting many reactions, especially about the sense of justice denied, just like those mentioned in the CNN report. And Peterson has to live with himself after everything that happened.
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