FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - Former school resource deputy Scot Peterson is speaking out following a court hearing on Wednesday.
He was fired following the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting in 2018.
“I’ll never forget that day. Not only kids died, I had friends that died and never for a second would I sit there and allow someone to die knowing that animal was up in that building, never!” Peterson said.
Former school resource officer Peterson was in visible anguish, Wednesday, as he left a Broward County courtroom.
The former BSO deputy has mostly kept out of the public eye since his arrest on multiple felony and misdemeanor charges stemming from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting.
Surveillance video from the day of the shooting showed Peterson standing outside the building where shots were being fired at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in February 2018.
He’s accused of hiding from the shooting and failing to investigate the source of the gunfire that killed 17 people.
Peterson was arrested in 2019, pleading not guilty to charges of child neglect, culpable negligence, and perjury following a 14-month investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
The latest hearing: A motion to have those charges dropped.
“As a matter of law, he should never have been charged through a child neglect statute which holds responsible parents, teachers, kidnappers, babysitters, but not school resource officers,” said attorney Mark Eiglarsh.
“I feel for that parent. How could I not, and to sit there and for him to think that, I don’t want him to say how he feels, it’s hurtful, it’s hurtful,” Peterson said.
And holding firm that he did everything he could that fateful day.
“I didn’t, I didn’t do anything there to try and hurt any child there on the scene, I did the best that I could with the information. I did the best,” Peterson said.
A decision from the judge could come in the next few months.
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