A jury acquitted a former Florida sheriff's deputy involved in the Parkland shooting on all counts, including child neglect and culpable negligence.
The former Broward County sheriff's deputy, Scot Peterson, was found not guilty on all counts related to the Parkland high school shooting five years ago. These include seven counts of child neglect and three counts of culpable negligence.
Parkland Shooting Deputy Found Not Guilty on 10 Counts
The charges were related to the deaths and injuries of 10 people on the third floor of the building where the tragic shooting occurred. Peterson was also freed of responsibility from one count of perjury for claiming to the police that he only heard a few gunshots and saw no children fleeing the crime scene.
The case against Peterson came after he was accused of failing to confront the gunman during the shooting and instead chose to back away from the building. His behavior was revealed immediately after the incident, and critics, including some fellow police officers, said he was too scared to face a heavily armed gunman, as per the New York Times.
The former sheriff's deputy's actions resulted in outrage across the Parkland community, and he was cast as the central character in a morality tale about cowardice and law enforcement's duty to protect children. The father of one of the shooting victims told Peterson to "rot in hell," and national media outlets gave him the moniker the "coward in Broward.
The shooting incident resulted in the death of 17 people and the injury of 17 others and was found to be conducted by a former student of the school. Last year, authorities sentenced the suspect to life in prison in the same courtroom where Peterson was acquitted of all charges on Thursday.
The former sheriff's deputy was the lone armed resource officer assigned to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School during the massacre on Feb. 14, 2018. The 60-year-old was seen crying on Thursday as Judge Martin S. Fein of the Broward County Circuit Court read the verdict on his case.
Failure To Protect the Victims
Following the verdict, Peterson said he wanted to talk to the parents of the students killed during the shooting. According to BBC, he said they needed to know the truth of what happened that day and added that he would be there to support them.
Despite the verdict, the father of Gina, Tony Montalto, whose daughter was one of the victims of the tragic shooting, said that he still blames Peterson for not trying to stop the incident. He said that the only thing he could say to the jury was to let the former sheriff's deputy work at their kids' schools to protect their children.
The jury that handed out the verdict on Peterson's case heard testimony that when the shooting occurred, the former sheriff's deputy, who was armed at the time but was not wearing body armor, stayed inside an alcove that was adjacent to the school building for 30 or 40 minutes until the shooting ended.
It also came as prosecutors used a novel legal theory against the defendant, saying that as the school's assigned deputy, he was legally a "caregiver" to the establishment's students. This was a requirement for Peterson to be found guilty of child neglect, said the Associated Press.
