A former Florida sheriff’s deputy who failed to confront Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz and instead fled to safety broke down in court today when a jury found him not guilty of child neglect and other crimes.
Scot Peterson, 60, wept as the verdicts were read. The jury deliberated for 19 hours over four days, acquitting Peterson of all 11 charges.
The campus deputy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Peterson had been charged with failing to confront Cruz during his six-minute attack inside a three-story 1200 classroom building on February 14, 2018, that left 17 dead.
After the verdict, Peterson told reporters that ‘the only person to blame was that monster.’ ‘We did the best we could with the information we had,’ he continued.
The acquittal concludes the first trial in U.S. history of a law enforcement officer for conduct during an on-campus shooting.
It comes eight months after the gunman Nikolas Cruz was sentenced to life in prison without parole after being spared the death penalty.
