President Donald Trump is calling the armed school deputy stationed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School a “coward” after recent reports revealed that he never entered the school during the shooting.
The president has spoken out against Scot Peterson, the armed deputy stationed at the Parkland, Florida high school who was captured on surveillance footage remaining outside of the building as a gunman opened fire and killed 17 students and adults.
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President Trump on the armed deputy who did not enter the school during Florida shooting: “He’s trained his whole life… but when it came time to get in there and do something, he didn’t have the courage or something happened. He certainly did a poor job.” https://t.co/zqN2ixgevn pic.twitter.com/FfZHT1gpyM
— CNN (@CNN) February 23, 2018
“He’s trained his whole life… but when it came time to get in there and do something, he didn’t have the courage or something happened. He certainly did a poor job, there’s no question about that,” Trump told CNN. “That’s a case where somebody was outside, they’re trained, they didn’t react properly under pressure or they were a coward.”
On Thursday, Broward Sheriff Scott Israel revealed that Peterson stood outside Building 12, where the majority of the victims were killed, for four minutes during the shooting, which lasted a total of six minutes. Israel said that the deputy should have “went in. Addressed the killer. Killed the killer.”
Peterson was initially suspended without pay, but has since resigned.
In the wake of the shooting, survivors have been outspoken about the need for stricter gun laws. Students have attended anti-gun rallies, traveled to the Florida state Capitol to speak with lawmakers about school safety, and planned multiple nationwide organized school walkouts.
In response to the shootings, and the outcry for gun reform, the president has proposed regulations that would ban the sale of bump stocks, a device that can turn a semi-automatic firearm into an automatic weapon.
“I signed a memorandum directing the Attorney General to propose regulations to ban all devices that turn legal weapons into machine guns,” President Trump told those at the White House Medal of Valor ceremony.
Trump has also suggested the idea of arming teachers. The White House Press Secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, noted in a briefing that the president also hasn’t ruled out new gun control policies, including an assault weapons ban.
