The Broward County Sheriff's Department has fired Marjory Stoneman Douglas Resource Officer Scot Peterson and Sgt. Brian Miller because they "were found to have neglected their duties" during the February 2018 Parkland shooting, NBC News reports.
Peterson, a former sheriff's deputy for the department, has also been arrested. He was decried nationally as the "coward of Broward" after a report concluded he "retreated to an area of safety" instead of trying to find the source of gunshots during the shooting. Now, after a 15-month Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation, he has been charged with seven counts of neglect of a child, three counts of culpable negligence, and one count of perjury, the department announced Tuesday.
The shooting left 17 students, teachers, and staff dead. The investigation concluded that Peterson "refused to investigate the source of gunshots," meaning there is "no question that his inaction cost lives," the state's law enforcement commissioner said in Tuesday's statement.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The charges could land Peterson in prison for a maximum of 97 years.
-
7 mountain hotels perfect for a tranquil autumn or winter escapeThe Week Recommends Get (altitude) high and unwind
-
‘Deskilling’: a dangerous side effect of AI useThe explainer Workers are increasingly reliant on the new technology
-
The biggest sports betting scandals in historyIn Depth The recent indictments of professional athletes were the latest in a long line of scandals
-
France makes first arrests in Louvre jewels heistSpeed Read Two suspects were arrested in connection with the daytime theft of royal jewels from the museum
-
Trump pardons crypto titan who enriched familySpeed Read Binance founder Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty in 2023 to enabling money laundering while CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange
-
Thieves nab French crown jewels from LouvreSpeed Read A gang of thieves stole 19th century royal jewels from the Paris museum’s Galerie d’Apollon
-
Arsonist who attacked Shapiro gets 25-50 yearsSpeed Read Cody Balmer broke into the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion and tried to burn it down
-
Man charged over LA’s deadly Palisades Firespeed read 29-year-old Jonathan Rinderknecht has been arrested in connection with the fire that killed 12 people
-
4 dead in shooting, arson attack in Michigan churchSpeed Read A gunman drove a pickup truck into a Mormon church where he shot at congregants and then set the building on fire
-
2 kids killed in shooting at Catholic school massSpeed Read 17 others were wounded during a morning mass at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis
-
Australian woman found guilty of mushroom murdersspeed read Erin Patterson murdered three of her ex-husband's relatives by serving them toxic death cap mushrooms
