The father of one of the Parkland school shooting victims filed a wrongful death lawsuit Monday against Scot Peterson, the school resource officer who did not enter the school during the shooting, and the suspected gunman, Nikolas Cruz.
Andrew Pollack, whose daughter Meadow was among the victims of the Feb. 14 massacre, is suing Peterson and Cruz, among others, in Broward County court.
“I filed a wrongful death suit against Deputy Peterson today. I want to expose that coward so bad. Where ever he goes I want people to recognize him and say that’s one of the cowards of Broward. The SRO that let those children and teachers die on the 3rd floor!” Pollack tweeted late Monday.
“This suit has nothing to do with money. I want to be sure anywhere he goes in this country he will be recognized as the coward that could have gone in and saved the students and teachers on the third floor,” he said in a second tweet.
This suit has nothing to do with money. I want to be sure anywhere he goes in this country he will be recognized as the coward that could have gone in and saved the students and teachers on the third floor.
— Andrew Pollack (@AndrewPollackFL) May 1, 2018
Peterson was assigned to Marjory Stoneman Douglas as a school resource officer and responded to reports of gunfire. After the shooting, which left 17 dead, Broward Sheriff Scott Israel revealed Peterson “never went in” the building where Cruz was shooting.
Surveillance footage from the day of the massacre released later by the Broward Sheriff’s Office shows Peterson responding to the scene of the shooting but remaining outside the school. Peterson was suspended without pay pending an investigation, but chose to retire. He has since defended his actions.
The lawsuit filed by Pollack describes Peterson as being a “coward” and “pusillanimous.”
Peterson, the complaint said, “cowered in his safe location between two concrete walls outside of Building 12 the entire time Nikolas Cruz trained his AR-15 and rained bullets upon the teachers and students.” The lawsuit also said the school resource officer “waited and listened to the din of screams of teachers and students, many of whom were dead or dying, and the blasts of Nikolas Cruz’s repeated gunfire.”
“There was only one person on the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School campus on February 14, 2018, between 2:22 p.m. and 2:27 p.m. who could have stopped Nikolas Cruz. There was only one other person on the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School campus on February 14, 2018, between 2:22 p.m. and 2:27 p.m. who was armed. There was only one person on the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School campus on February 14, 2018, between 2:22 p.m. and 2:27 p.m. who was trained to deal with an active shooter,” the complaint said.
“Unfortunately for the teachers and students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, that one person was Scot Peterson,” it said.
The lawsuit accused the three mental health facilities listed in the suit of negligence and breach of duty for failing to properly diagnose and treat Cruz. Pollack is also suing James and Kimberly Snead, who Cruz lived with following his mother’s death, for allowing Cruz access to his guns.
Pollack’s lawsuit is the second stemming from the February shooting to be filed. Last month, the parents of 15-year-old Anthony Borges filed a lawsuit on his behalf against Cruz, his mother’s estate, the Sneads, and the three Florida mental health facilities.
Borges was shot five times while he blocked a doorway during the massacre.
