Five years after the Parkland mass shooting that left 17 dead, the former Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School resource officer accused of failing to confront the teenage gunman faced trial on Wednesday.
“In an active shooter situation, [police] are trained to go towards the shots because people are dying…so you can stop the killing,” Assistant State Attorney Steven Klinger told Broward County jurors during his opening statements. “Seventeen beautiful people were lost.”
Scot Peterson, now known as the “the coward of Broward,” has pleaded not guilty to several counts, including child neglect and perjury, for his failed response during the February 14, 2018 massacre in Parkland, Florida. Prosecutors allege that the ex-Broward Sheriff’s Office deputy failed to follow active shooting training and remained outside the three-story Parkland, Florida building for about 48 minutes.
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During that time, former student Nikolas Cruz, armed with an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle, carried out the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history that also left 17 others injured. Among the dead in the six-minute attack were three staff members and 14 students. (Cruz, who pleaded guilty to 35 counts of murder and attempted murder, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole last year.)
If convicted, Peterson faces nearly a century in prison and would lose his $104,000 annual pension. His trial notably marks the first time a law enforcement officer has faced a trial for failing to confront a gunman—raising questions about police responsibility during active shootings.
Peterson, 60, was seen shaking his head and wiping away tears as Klinger detailed to jurors how he allegedly failed his duties as a law enforcement officer during the deadly attack. Klinger argued that an armed Peterson was the first to arrive at the high school via golf cart, about 73 seconds before Cruz reached the building’s third floor. But instead of confronting Cruz, prosecutors alleged he backed away as the gunman opened fire and directed other officers away from the gunman.
“The defendant will never leave that alcove while the shooter is in the building,” Klinger said.
As the prosecution’s first witness, Danielle Gilbert described how the shooting began during her 4th-period class on Valentine’s Day in 2018. A junior at the time, she said the day “started off great” because of the holiday—until her class heard gunshots and instantly knew what was going on.
“The sound was unmistakable,” Gilbert told jurors, noting that she and her peers in room 1213 moved out of the way and “sat and duck and huddled as closely as we could.”
Ultimately, Cruz would walk toward her classroom, shooting into the door and hitting four of her classmates before she said he “moved on.” One of those classmates, Carmen Schentrup, was fatally shot. Jurors also heard a cell phone video Gilbert took during the mass shooting, a harrowing time in which she said she and her peers were just waiting for help to arrive and assisting those who had been shot.
“I was just waiting for police, it was the longest 20 minutes of my life,” Gilbert said, adding that she did not see Peterson assist students that day. “It felt like an eternity and the whole time, we were just waiting for the police to come. For someone to knock on the door and take us out of that horror.”
Ivy Schamis, a former social studies teacher, also testified Wednesday about the shooting, where she remembers shots “flying all over our classroom.”
Afterward, prosecutors allege Peterson lied after the shooting and said he only heard two or three shots from the building and did not see any students running when he was in the school stairwell.
Peterson, however, has maintained his innocence in the deadly incident and has long insisted that he did not enter the school because he thought the shots were coming from outside. Defense attorney Mark Eiglarsh also told jurors that his team is planning to call 22 witnesses to the stand to prove Peterson’s innocence, including former Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel.
Eiglarsh also noted that despite his 32-year law enforcement career, Peterson turned into a scapegoat for law enforcement failures in the Parkland shooting and faced intense criticism and scrutiny for his actions. He insists that his client did not lie to law enforcement after the shooting, and simply relayed what he heard and believed at the time.
“My client was sacrificed. The evidence will show that he was thrown under the bus,” Eiglarsh added. “My client is not a criminal and the evidence will not prove that he did not commit any criminal offenses at all. He did not know where those shots were coming from.”
The defense attorney stressed that the only person to blame in the tragic shooting is Cruz, whom he called a “sick, twisted monster.”
