FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The bullets were landing everywhere: The hallways, the stairway, striking windows, the teacher’s lounge.
On Tuesday, two investigators with the Broward Sheriff’s Office testified about the scores of recovered shell casings found in the 1200 building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School after the Feb. 14, 2018 mass shooting.
As the bullets flew, former Broward Sheriff’s Deputy Scot Peterson said he didn’t know where the shots were coming from to take action. He is now on trial on charges of child neglect, culpable negligence and perjury for his actions — and inactions — during the Parkland massacre.
Shooter Nikolas Cruz murdered 17 students and staff and wounded 17 more.
According to prosecutors, Peterson arrived outside the east entrance of the 1200 building just before the gunman was done shooting victims on the first floor. Prosecutors argue had Peterson gone into the east entrance when he first heard gunfire, he might have been able to determine the gunman’s location and confront him before he reached the third floor. But he did not.
Instead Peterson took cover outside the 700 building, an act that got him labeled the Coward of Broward, and criticized by many, including his boss at the time, Sheriff Scott Israel, and President Donald Trump.
Peterson is also accused of lying about how many shots he heard, minimizing the severity of the tragic event.
His defense attorney, Mark Eiglarsh, has maintained there was a pronounced echo on the grounds, and Peterson couldn’t narrow down where the shooting was coming from and didn’t know if the shooter was a sniper, or if there were multiple gunmen.
Also Tuesday, Coral Springs Police Capt. Edmond DeRosa, then a property crimes supervisor who was working on an unrelated case at Coral Springs High School searching for an arson suspect, drove to Stoneman Douglas when he was told by a dispatcher there were reports of gunfire.
He saw Peterson standing in the breezeway and “I said ‘Scot, what’s going on, where do we need to go?'” He said Peterson pointed at the 1200 building, but also said the gunman could be elsewhere. DeRosa went past him into the 1200 building, saying there was “no advantage to me being there” and took up a position with other officers in the stairwell, guns drawn upward “prepared for engagement.”
They would later learn that they were getting information from delayed security video and the shooter had likely already left the campus.
DeRosa testified he was “more concerned with eliminating a threat than my own safety.”
Cruz is serving 34 consecutive life sentences for the murders and attempted murders.
If convicted of felony neglect charges, Peterson, 60, could be sentenced to more than 90 years in prison.
His criminal trial will resume Thursday.
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Lisa J. Huriash can be reached at lhuriash@sunsentinel.com. Follow on Twitter @LisaHuriash
