Deputy in Parkland Shooting Faces 11 Charges for His Complete Inaction

Tragedy struck the neighborhood of a school in Parkland last year's Valentine's Day when a shooter unleashed mayhem. Inquiries into the actions or inactions of officers of the law during the tragedy have led to the arrest and trial of a deputy.

February 14, 2018, was meant to be a day to celebrate love and turn the environment red with roses. However, it turned out to be a day filled with blood and tragedy for students, teachers, and parents of a school in Parkland when a shooter decided to unleash violence on them.

At the end of the mayhem, the death toll was 17 and included students and school staff. More were lucky to be counted amongst the injured. In the wake of the incident, an investigation was carried out to unravel the actions taken by officers of law during the shooting, and findings from it are beginning to surface.

One of such results from the findings has led to the arrest of a former Deputy of the school, Scot Peterson. Peterson was arrested and charged for neglecting his duty, neglecting the children and also for perjury.

He made an appearance in a bond court for a hearing. Investigations leading to Peterson’s arrest have been ongoing for over 15 months and show that the former Deputy made no effort to help stop or reduce the effect of the shootings.

He is alleged to have failed to take action to find the origin of the gunshots and withdrew during the shootings. Furthermore, he also told other officers of the law on their arrival to the scene to keep a certain distance away from the building.

Based on these revelations, officials of the Florida Police Department believe Mr. Peterson’s inactions should lead to an end in his employment and also see him face criminal charges.

However, the accused’s attorney, Joseph DiRuzzo, argued that his client was wrongly accused and was not negligent in his actions. He explained that Peterson was not a caregiver and as such could not be held liable for being child negligent.

He further noted that charges against his client apart from being legally misguided were also motivated by politics and a witch hunt against his person.

Parents and guardians of some of the victims have lauded Peterson’s arrests and accused him of cowardice and neglect of duty. They believe he could have saved some lives if he acted bravely and also accused him of previously lying about not knowing the shooter’s whereabouts.

If convicted, Peterson would face about 96 years in jail. In a related development, a survivor of the shooting,

in their quest to urge lawmakers to pass

measures bill, to prevent occurrences of such shootings.

David is also a co-founder of a movement called "March for Our Lives Movement," which is led by students and was founded after the shootings of February 14, 2018.