PARKLAND, FLA. (WSVN) - The Broward Sheriff’s Office has released some of the surveillance video from the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
About 27 minutes of video was released just after noon Thursday.
A man who is believed to be school resource deputy Scot Peterson could be seen near the building at the moment of the shooting but never going into the building.
“Not only is he an embarrassment to every police officer that puts a uniform on — he’s a coward,” said Andrew Pollack, who lost his daughter in the shooting.
Seventeen people were killed in the shooting.
Here is Deputy Scot Peterson in the administration building the second he appears to get word of gunshots. Rushes to the area of the 1200 bldg and then remains there (behind tree and concrete pole) throughout the incident. pic.twitter.com/ycrmkb3XA1
— Frank Guzman (@fguzmanon7) March 15, 2018
The video first shows Peterson in a different building when the accused shooter Nikolas Cruz began to fire. Surveillance video showed Peterson as he grabbed his radio, got on a golf cart and drove toward the gunfire at Building 12.
Students who were inside Building 12 soon began to call 911.
Terrified students described the scene to dispatchers on the phone.
Caller: “There’s holes in the wall. There’s smoke all in my room.”
911 operator: “You have smoke in your room?”
Caller: “My window and my door is shattered.”
Broward Sheriff Scott Israel said Peterson never went into the building to confront the shooter.
Peterson could be seen standing outside directly from where the shots were coming from while on his radio. “Make sure we get some units over here. I need assistance at Stoneman Douglas,” he said via radio.
Peterson continued to stand in that spot four minutes and 23 seconds after Cruz started to shoot. He was still on his radio.
“He was there at the third minute,” Pollack said. “My daughter was killed on the third floor. He had ample enough time to save everybody on the third floor. This guy.”
Pollack said Cruz shot his daughter Meadow several times. “While that coward is waiting, that embarrassment of an officer,” he said. “There’s a lot of failures and incompetence that took place in this whole horrific act.”
Peterson has since resigned from the sheriff’s office.
However, Peterson’s attorney said his client at first believed the gunshots were fireworks when he heard them. After he realized they were gunshots, Peterson said he thought he heard them coming from outside the building.
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