^^rsbm
Right or wrong, I believe the state statute is going to govern any charges against PA such as with Peterson that's been charged with neglect and negligence.
No doubt PA grossly failed his citizens but as I've opined before, I don't believe PA was fit for the position he was hired. I can't get past the comments by the Board when he was hired -- leaving me with the impression that his years of law enforcement experience were incorrectly deemed a valid substitute for his mental and physical fitness for the job. To be clear, this man, Chief PA, the incident commander, abandoned his police radio at the first notice of an emergency!
IMO, the entire community (school and public) was in danger from the date he was hired.
Peterson is charged with seven counts of child neglect, three counts of culpable negligence, and one count of perjury for his alleged failures to fulfill his law enforcement duties as Cruz, a former student at the school, fired upon students and teachers.
The Broward State Attorney’s Office, which is prosecuting Peterson, has already had access to the crime scene at the school to help them prepare for trial, according to the court records.
[..]
The former BSO deputy has defended his actions the day of Cruz’s killings in the school’s 1200 Building, stating he did not know the killer’s location and thought the building might have been under attack from a sniper.
“I arrived at that scene, and when I got there, I heard two to three shots outside,” Peterson said last year during a news conference with his attorney. “I immediately got on my radio, and I reported ‘Shots fired.’ I then went on my school radio to lock down the school, to safeguard the 3,200 kids on that campus.”
“I’ve been trained for 30 years, you don’t stand outside when there’s gunfire right outside, so I looked for the closest position of tactical cover, which was the 700 building, and that’s where I moved to, and at that moment I became the incident commander on the scene, still not knowing at all, never knowing, that there was a shooter or shooters inside that building shooting students and staff,” Peterson said. “I never once when I was at that 700 building knew that.”
Former Broward Sheriff’s Office Deputy Scot Peterson—the ex-school resource officer criminally charged for not entering Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School
coralspringstalk.com
<modsnip> But people there are very angry and still very angry today at the way Peterson acted. And he did know there were shots being fired - the other guy in the golf cart that was with him testified that he heard the gunfire and left on the golf cart. There were never shots fired outside - Cruz waited until he was in the building and put the gun together in one of the stairwells - and - here's a story for you - another student came into that stairwell while he was doing that and Cruz looked at that kid and told him something like "you need to get out of here now - its going to be bad". That kid took off and was unharmed. It was all over so fast that NC was done shooting - ditched the gun and walked out (blended in) with the other evacuating students. He was arrested like an hour or so later and a nearby McDonald's.
As for PA - what he did - is far way worse than what SP did. And you are right - he was certainly not fit for duty. It will be interesting to see how this one plays out.
People are tired of this - all of this. Its society's norm to go to the "blame game".
I was 25 miles away - in Broward county - when Parkland happened. I watched it all unfold for days, weeks, - it was scary, and heartbreaking, and agonizing. And, SP was almost immediately thrown to the wolves.
But what PA did - he TOOK COMMAND - SP never really engaged with any other LE on scene. PA made decisions, issued commands, requested assets and/or resources. And now, to find out he disarmed and removed another LE (whose wife was in the room and dying) from the scene. No. To me - and this is JMHO - that crossed the line.
We heard that the teacher (wife) died in the ambulance - so she was still alive even when the breach happened but it had gone on so long that she died en route to the hospital. And there was another little girl reported on - she had been shot in the kidney / back and the doctor told the parents she died of exsanguination (blood loss) - so she could have been saved if they would have breached earlier.
Don't get me wrong - SR is 100% responsible for the death and destruction that day. However, under the command of PA (or lack thereof) in response to that incident caused more deaths than would have otherwise been injuries.
Interesting that the guys testifying now are from the LE licensing board for the state of Texas. Seems they not only want PA's license - they want to make sure he NEVER WORKS IN LE ANYWHERE, EVER AGAIN.
The Attorney General is the one that is going to decide whether or not to pursue PA. It was mentioned in McCraw's testimony about a Grand Jury - but had said that one had not been established yet.
JMHO