Closing arguments began Monday in the trial of a former Florida deputy charged with felony child neglect for failing to step in and stop a shooter who killed 14 students and three staff members and wounded 17 others at a Parkland high school five years ago.
Prosecutors claimed Scot Peterson, 60, waited 45 minutes before confronting then-19-year-old Nikolas Cruz. The incident remains the deadliest high school shooting in the country’s history.
“In that moment, while he stood at those doors, every student and every teacher on the third floor was still alive,” Assistant State Attorney Kristen Gomes said on Monday. “In that moment, choose to go in or choose to run. And Scot Peterson chose to run.”
Gomes added that Peterson “left behind an unrestricted killer to spend the next four minutes and 15 seconds wandering the halls at his leisure.”
“When Scot Peterson ran, he left children trapped inside of the building with a predator unchecked,” she said. From “2:23 p.m. forward, that predator would fire 70 rounds from the moment that man made the decision not to enter.”
Peterson’s trial marks the first time a U.S. law enforcement official has been tried in connection to a school shooting.
Prosecutors spent the past two weeks calling students, teachers, and other law enforcement officers to the stand who went into detail about the events that unfolded that grisly day and how they knew for certain that the shots were coming from the 1200 building, contradicting claims Peterson had made that he did not know where the shots originated.
Prosecutors also called Broward County Lt. Col. Sam Samaroo, who testified that Peterson had undergone training both in a video simulator and with live actors several times that would have prepared him to act. He also claimed Peterson was aware that even if he were alone, he would have to confront an active shooter per the job. Samaroo added that deputies such as Peterson are taught that active shooters, if confronted, are likely either to kill or barricade themselves, affording precious time to allow students to flee or take cover, adding that deputies are taught to go toward the gunshots immediately.
Peterson’s attorney, Mark Eiglarsh, countered, claiming his client could not determine where the shots were coming from. Eiglarsh also told jurors that the chaos during the attack was heightened by the failure of the sheriff’s radio system and limited Peterson’s ability to hear what incoming deputies were saying.
Jurors will also have to determine whether Peterson was a “caregiver” to the students who died. He can only be convicted of child neglect if he is deemed their caregiver.
Peterson did not take the stand in his own defense.
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If he is found guilty of felony child neglect, he could be sentenced to nearly 100 years in prison and lose his $104,000 annual pension. He had worked for nearly 30 years at schools, including nine spent at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. He announced his retirement soon after the Feb. 14, 2018, murders and then was fired retroactively.
In 2021, shooter Cruz pleaded guilty to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder. He was sentenced to life in prison.
