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[llien]

An armed officer assigned to the Florida school where a gunman killed 17 people last week stood outside the building during the shooting and did not intervene, the local sheriff says.

Deputy Scot Peterson has resigned after being suspended, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said.

"I am devastated. Sick to my stomach. He never went in," Sheriff Israel said.

Earlier this week President Trump said arming school teachers could prevent school shootings.

The proposal has long been championed by the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA) gun lobby.

On Thursday, in the NRA's first comments since the massacre, its head accused Democrats and media of "exploiting" the attack. Wayne LaPierre said "opportunists" were using the tragedy to expand gun control and abolish US gun rights.

What did the officer do?
Sheriff Israel said Mr Peterson, 54, was the school resource officer of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, and was at the site, armed and in uniform, when the shooting took place.
He said video footage showed Mr Peterson arriving at the building where the shooting broke out about 90 seconds after the first shots were fired, and that he remained outside for about four minutes. The attack lasted six minutes, Sheriff Israel said.

Why was Deputy Peterson there?
School resource officers are sworn law enforcement officers who are responsible for safety and crime prevention in schools, although their exact roles differ from school to school and authority to authority.

Employed by the local police or sheriff's office, they document incidents and can make arrests, as well as working on areas such as mentoring and education.

There are between 14,000 and 20,000 such officers in the US, according to the National Association of School Resource Officers.

Mr Peterson had been in his position at the school since 2009, local media report.

The Sun-Sentinel newspaper said he had worked for the sheriff's office since 1985 and office records showed his salary for 2016 was $75,673 (£54,137).

BBC


Risking your life to save other's isn't an easy job, I guess.

 

[Spheyr]

Hopefully he gets the boot without retirement benefits after fucking up so hard.

 

[GamingEnthusiast]

Cowardice or just following orders?

 

[Troy1]

Risking your life to save other's isn't an easy job, I guess.

No, but he took an oath.

Cowardice or just following orders?

Not an leo, nor do I want to speak for all agencies, but I assume most are trained to engage immediately regardless of backup.

 

[Vicetrailia]

That was pretty light on details.

 

[Cybrwzrd]

I'm gonna withhold judgement here. He was probably armed with a pistol, and was a school resource officer because he was being put out to pasture by the department to live out his days until retirement, seeing as he was in his mid 50's.

It would be one thing if it was armed with a semi-auto rifle and had some backup, or even some sort of recon to know what was happening. He probably just has his sidearm and probably would be just another causality if he didn't get the drop on the kid.

 

[SpartanN92]

I'm gonna withhold judgement here. He was probably armed with a pistol, and was a school resource officer because he was being put out to pasture by the department to live out his days until retirement, seeing as he was in his mid 50's.

It would be one thing if it was armed with a semi-auto rifle and had some backup, or even some sort of recon to know what was happening. He probably just has his sidearm and probably would be just another causality if he didn't get the drop on the kid.

My immediate knee jerk reaction is to call him a coward but I can’t be sure what I would have done in that situation. God willing I’m ever put in something like that I hope I could step up but when seriously outgunned like that I can somewhat understand.

That all said though his side arm is significantly more firepower than the assistant football coach had when he used his body to shield the students.

I dunno this is just such a messed up situation.

 

[TTOOLL]

Very complicated situation, we expect the guy to intervene, risk his life if necessary. However, when you think about a 54-year-old dude who has been in this very calm role since 2009....I can only think he has lost it a long time ago, in the direst moment he couldn't do it. I will not crucify him for it, but yeah, just awful all around.

 

[camelCase]

Lol@ the guy "sick to his stomach" because someone wouldn't run blindly into the middle of a shooting without backup. He should have went it earlier but come on. Ppl acting like the shooting is his responsibility, please.

 

[Spheyr]

Ppl acting like the shooting is his responsibility, please.

As the literal armed police officer charged with protecting the campus, what other responsibility do you think he had?

 

[JareBear: Remastered]

Guys, he’s a cop. He’s a full on cop. I work in public schools. SROs are cops, they are just cops assigned to schools.

The sheriff straight up said “it is our job to confront the shooter.”

I’m not saying lock the guy up. But he froze and failed to do his job.

 

[BadHand]

Maybe armed teachers could do better? /s

 

[Mohonky]

Getting so tired of hearing the NRA and apologists saying 'stop politicising these attacks!!'

So when exactly do they plan on talking about what to do then? There never seems to be a time to talk about it.

As to the officer I'm not sure exactly what they expect. I know the NRA thinks life is like a Hollywood Western and the good guys go charging into a gun fight like some untouchable hero and mows the bad guu down in a hail of bullets but the reality of these situations is that they unfold so fast and chaotically I wouldnt even expect the officer to run in, I'd expect some assessment of the situation first.

What was the officer supposed to do exactly, just start spraying bullets around too? Imagine if there were plain clothed armed civilians around (exactlt what the NRA wants) how the fuck do you quickly and accurately even pin point who the perpetrator is when there are multiple people firing from different directions?

 

[Musky_Cheese]

Guys, he’s a cop. He’s a full on cop. I work in public schools. SROs are cops, they are just cops assigned to schools.

The sheriff straight up said “it is our job to confront the shooter.”

I’m not saying lock the guy up. But he froze and failed to do his job.

Maybe he was 2 days from retirement

He should have stepped up. He could have saved life’s.

 

[JareBear: Remastered]

To add to my post right above

SRO is a cushy job with many advantages over standard police work. This is the rare case where an SRO needed to intervene with deadly force and he failed to do so.

It’s absolutely fair to crucify him. People want to “have it both ways” with how they praise law enforcement and put them above reproach. No. His job was to stop the shooter or die trying.

He failed and kids died

 

[Mohonky]

To add to my post right above

SRO is a cushy job with many advantages over standard police work. This is the rare case where an SRO needed to intervene with deadly force and he failed to do so.

It’s absolutely fair to crucify him. People want to “have it both ways” with how they praise law enforcement and put them above reproach. No. His job was to stop the shooter or die trying.

He failed and kids died

Lets get this straight.

He heard firing

Arrives around 90 seconds after the first shot.

He remained outside for 4min.

The entire shooting episode lasted 6 min.

So thats a window of 30 seconds where he has entered the building.

I personally cant make a judgement call on how he could have best approached the situation. There's no mention of where the shooter was, nor what the officer was doing before entering.

Call me crazy (or not) for thinking its probably not the best idea to just go storming in with nfi where or how the situation is playing out.

Just because you sign up for a potentially dangerous job it doesnt mean you approach these sort of situations wrecklessly.

 

[lil puff]

Yeah, I am not going to sit at my desk and keyboard warrior that guy, whether he is at fault or not.

 

[Kotzen Ducha]

PROTECT AND SERVE when busting teens for weed or writing tickets for minor traffic violations

BUT NOT when kids are being shot. He's enjoying the best of both worlds here. Collecting a paycheck for a job he never intended to do.

 

[Cybrwzrd]

To add to my post right above

SRO is a cushy job with many advantages over standard police work. This is the rare case where an SRO needed to intervene with deadly force and he failed to do so.

It’s absolutely fair to crucify him. People want to “have it both ways” with how they praise law enforcement and put them above reproach. No. His job was to stop the shooter or die trying.

He failed and kids died

He also could have missed the shooter, hit another student and the shooter could have killed him.

Or the shooter could have seen him first and dropped him, then continued shooting more kids because he was confronted.

FFS, this isn't a damn movie where he could get hit a few times and take down the shooter heroically. If "if" and "buts" were candies and nuts, we'd all have a merry Christmas.

 

[Kotzen Ducha]

He also could have missed the shooter, hit another student and the shooter could have killed him.

Or the shooter could have seen him first and dropped him, then continued shooting more kids because he was confronted.

FFS, this isn't a damn movie where he could get hit a few times and take down the shooter heroically. If "if" and "buts" were candies and nuts, we'd all have a merry Christmas.

better not try, then
wtf

 

[David___]

And people think giving unexperianced teachers who aren't mentally prepared for this guns would do anything when a professional who was trained for this failed to act.

And no, I'm not demeaning the cop in anyway since its easy for anyone to say that they would've done something but entirely freeze up when action is needed. Shit is unexpected, I get that. But this seriously eliminates any chance that giving teachers guns would do any better since they aren't cops in the first place like this guy was.

 

[JareBear: Remastered]

I’m gonna have to ignore this thread moving forward. A lot of people have no idea what they are talking about.

Is confronting a killer hard? Yes. That’s his fucking job, though. That’s why an SRO gets assigned to a school. Being an SRO is about more than just talking to the secretaries all day, which is what most SROs do on most of their days. I get it. That’s why it’s an easy job to fill.

Most SROs will never encounter this situation but the FACT is the SROs job is to confront threats and protect the campus, period.

I’m out.

 

[lil puff]

I just have to give that guy the benefit of doubt here, that he never expected to have to run into a building and protect kids against an AR-15.

I guess these days, training needs to include better protocol for these situations. It's sad to say.

 

[Mohonky]

I’m gonna have to ignore this thread moving forward. A lot of people have no idea what they are talking about.

Is confronting a killer hard? Yes. That’s his fucking job, though. That’s why an SRO gets assigned to a school. Being an SRO is about more than just talking to the secretaries all day, which is what most SROs do on most of their days. I get it. That’s why it’s an easy job to fill.

Most SROs will never encounter this situation but the FACT is the SROs job is to confront threats and protect the campus, period.

I’m out.

Speaking of what they know about.....

Is it standard protocol to run into a situation headfirst without making any form of assessment? Im gathering from your post apparently its run and gun first, figure out wtf is happening after the fact.

 

[Cybrwzrd]

If you want to blame someone for this, the shooter's name is Nikolas Cruz, not Scot Peterson.

I find it much more damning that the sherrif's department didn't act on multiple tips that the he was off the rocker.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...-calls-cruzs-violence-threats-guns/366165002/

This is deflection to take heat off the department.

 

[JareBear: Remastered]

Yeah, I am not going to sit at my desk and keyboard warrior that guy, whether he is at fault or not.

Wow.

What a fucked world we live in

I guess cops should never save people, ever. I mean saving people is hard right?

Is there a way to ignore while threads? I don’t want to see this pop up anymore.

You all don’t get it

 

[camelCase]

As the literal armed police officer charged with protecting the campus, what other responsibility do you think he had?

No you're right, but the lives lost are not on him. To think him charging in and getting shot would be a better outcome is sour grapes.

 

[Kotzen Ducha]

No you're right, but the lives lost are not on him. To think him charging in and getting shot would be a better outcome is sour grapes.

I love this fantasy where the troubled teen easily kills the armed and trained adult.

 

[lil puff]

Wow.

What a fucked world we live in

I guess cops should never save people, ever. I mean saving people is hard right?

Is there a way to ignore while threads? I don’t want to see this pop up anymore.

You all don’t get it

I did not say this. Relax.

 

[Joe T.]

Trump brought up the idea of placing police officers at every school while at CPAC today, an idea that's far more practical than training and arming teachers that are already under a lot of pressure. Given that there are probably already a decent number of schools with armed security I can't imagine such a proposal would be met with all that much opposition. To add to that, a recent three-year study up here in Canada showed that along with the obvious mitigating factor police officers pose to school shooters it also cut down on bullying and raised academic performance: "Peel Region students feel safer, do better academically with police officers in school: study"

 

[prag16]

Yikes.

I'm not gonna lay the 17 deaths at his feet. That's unfair.

But to stand outside for 4 minutes doing nothing while kids were dying inside, that's not reasonable. Benefit of the doubt only goes so far.

 

[Cybrwzrd]

Judging by the hate message I just got, I am enabling and defending child murder for not crucifying the SRO...

I’m sure you who sent it are ignoring me by now. And I am the sick one?

 

[prag16]

Judging by the hate message I just got, I am enabling and defending child murder for not crucifying the SRO...

I’m sure you who sent it are ignoring me by now. And I am the sick one?

Crucifying him wouldn't necessarily be right. But the excuses being made for him in here are definitely beyond what I find reasonable. He was being paid $75k/yr to do basically nothing, and the one time he actually has to step up, he shits his pants. That's very bad.

 

[Cybrwzrd]

Crucifying him wouldn't necessarily be right. But the excuses being made for him in here are definitely beyond what I find reasonable. He was being paid $75k/yr to do basically nothing, and the one time he actually has to step up, he shits his pants. That's very bad.

4 minutes is pretty freaking fast. I just find it interesting that the news about him drops at the same times as news about the sheriffs department not acting on 18 warnings about the kid.

 

[subsmoke]

My first instinct is that he's a coward, but that's not necessarily true. Maybe he just froze up? The shooter had an AR-15 while he would have only had a pistol so he was definitely outgunned there. Still, he should have done something rather than just hide outside while kids were getting shot left and right.

 

[krazen]

If only he was an armed teacher just getting paid a bonus(c); so many lives would have been saved today because lord knows that since professionals fuck up all the time untrained teachers holding a glock for the bonus (free market) would never act like this guy did and would have taken that badguy out..why? Cause he’s a good guy with a gun, lol

 

[Air Zombie Meat]

This guy froze up and didn't do what he was supposed to do but there was armed security at Pulse and Columbine too, they didn't stop what happened either.

 

[prag16]

4 minutes is pretty freaking fast.

It's really not. 4 minutes is an eternity.

And the 18 ignored warnings or whatever it was, that's obviously bad too. Both "inaction" situations there are bad.

 

[King of Foxes]

I don't know, I mean it is the guys job to protect but when it comes down to it I can't really "crucify" someone who froze in a situation like that.

It;s just a shitty situation all around but I am really curious what the protocol is for these things, running in guns blazing doesn't seem like the smart thing to do (despite it being arguably the correct moral thing to do)

 

[lil puff]

Judging by the hate message I just got, I am enabling and defending child murder for not crucifying the SRO...

I’m sure you who sent it are ignoring me by now. And I am the sick one?

Serious, that guy is acting like it's our fault. He sent me a msg as well.

That's the kind of thing this forum does not need.

 

[generaldane]

It was a terrible fuck up make no mistake but the guy is only human, crucifying him isn't gonna change what happened, the best they can do is release him from his position, I am certain having to live with the fact that he could have done more is gonna eat away at him for the rest of his life

 

[mckmas8808]

So was he inside the school when the shooting started or was he still in his car just getting to the school when the shooting started?

 

[AfricanKing]

Blood is on his hands, hope he spends the rest of his life knowing children where murdered on his watch

 

[BANGS]

I'm gonna withhold judgement here. He was probably armed with a pistol, and was a school resource officer because he was being put out to pasture by the department to live out his days until retirement, seeing as he was in his mid 50's.

It would be one thing if it was armed with a semi-auto rifle and had some backup, or even some sort of recon to know what was happening. He probably just has his sidearm and probably would be just another causality if he didn't get the drop on the kid.

This is how a reasonable person would react, but sadly it seems there aren't many left in this world...

 

[bufkus]

A guy with a handgun vs a killer w/ an AR-15.

He clearly had a greater chance of dying than if he had fled. I don't blame him for choosing his own life over death. People need to stop with this fantasy that every "good guy with a gun" has the superheroic ability to stop a madman with an AR-15.

It was a terrible fuck up make no mistake but the guy is only human, crucifying him isn't gonna change what happened, the best they can do is release him from his position, I am certain having to live with the fact that he could have done more is gonna eat away at him for the rest of his life

How was it a mistake? If he had confronted the killer, he would have been killed on the spot.

 

[Kotzen Ducha]

A guy with a handgun vs a killer w/ an AR-15.

He clearly had a greater chance of dying than if he had fled. I don't blame him for choosing his own life over death. People need to stop with this fantasy that every "good guy with a gun" has the superheroic ability to stop a madman with an AR-15.



How was it a mistake? If he had confronted the killer, he would have been killed on the spot.

It wasn't a guy with a gun. It was a trained officer whose JOB DESCRIPTION was to protect the children and teachers at the school.
C'mon

And again with this fantasy that NOBODY CAN STOP THE KILLER!
He got a super star and bullets bounce off of him!

He was a troubled kid with a big gun. Of course somebody could have stopped him.

 

[Typical]

Middle aged over weight cop who appears to have had a cushy 100k a year job as a SRO for the last 30 years with duties including

“1) provide law enforcement and investigation, 2) develop crime prevention programs, 3) training and securing school personnel, 4) establish a working relationship with school and students, 5) develop classes related to position, 6) assist students in conflict resolution, 7) be a positive role model”

Seems the guy wasn’t equipped to be thrown into a battle zone after spending 30 years being a positive role model and breaking up school fights. But a guess arming the geography teacher will have better results...

 

[prophetvx]

It wasn't a guy with a gun. It was a trained officer whose JOB DESCRIPTION was to protect the children and teachers at the school.
C'mon

And again with this fantasy that NOBODY CAN STOP THE KILLER!
He got a super star and bullets bounce off of him!

He was a troubled kid with a big gun. Of course somebody could have stopped him.

There is a reason why things like SWAT exist. Yes a cop could have stopped him or he could have bungled the situation. Siege and assault situations are very different to the regular situational training police receive. It takes a certain level of proficiency with a handgun to take down someone with an assault weapon before they take you out.

He should have done something, without question, it's his duty. However, make no mistake there is a significant probability that it likely would not have changed the body count at all or added a dead cop to the count.

 

[mrkgoo]

Lets get this straight.

He heard firing

Arrives around 90 seconds after the first shot.

He remained outside for 4min.

The entire shooting episode lasted 6 min.

So thats a window of 30 seconds where he has entered the building.

I personally cant make a judgement call on how he could have best approached the situation. There's no mention of where the shooter was, nor what the officer was doing before entering.

Call me crazy (or not) for thinking its probably not the best idea to just go storming in with nfi where or how the situation is playing out.

Just because you sign up for a potentially dangerous job it doesnt mean you approach these sort of situations wrecklessly.

That's tithing isn't it? No matter how well you're trained, in the Heat of the moment, crucial minutes and seconds are all you have. If you're not already IN the scene it becomes near impossible to judge the situation in the time these normally take place. Like how are you supposed to know if there aren't multiple shooters, bombs, or that the event is going to last a long time such that a pause to assess isn't the better option?

And it's sad that some seem to think the answer is merely to arm more people in the hope that someone in the scene has a gun.

 

[Vicetrailia]

Yeah. I feel like scapegoating through this guy isn't the answer for avoiding the gun regulation debate.