Florida deputy defends not running in to Parkland during shooting
The police officer blamed for failing to enter a Florida high school while 17 people were killed said Monday that he's been unfairly labeled a coward and that he did nothing wrong.
A lawyer representing Scot Peterson said in a statement that Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel "maligned" the officer in public statements in which he said Peterson should have gone into the school and killed alleged gunman Nikolas Cruz. Israel cited video footage that captured Peterson's response.
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Israel said that he suspended Peterson after seeing video footage that captured Peterson's response, hearing witness accounts and getting a statement from the officer. Peterson then resigned, Israel said.
"Let there be no mistake, Mr. Peterson wishes that he could have prevented the untimely passing of the seventeen victims on that day, and his heart goes out to the families of the victims in their time of need," the lawyer, Joseph DiRuzzo III, said.
"However, the allegations that Mr. Peterson was a coward and that his performance, under the circumstances, failed to meet the standards of police officers are patently untrue. Mr. Peterson is confident that his actions on that day were appropriate under the circumstances and that the video (together with the eye-witness testimony of those on the scene) will exonerate him of any sub-par performance," the statement said.
Israel has come under mounting criticism over his department's handling of the Feb. 14 shooting and of repeated complaints about Cruz in the months that preceded it.
