The deputy who hid outside of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School during the tragic shooting on Feb. 14 in Parkland, Florida has been seen in public for the first time since that day.
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Scot Peterson resigned from his sheriff’s office position as a school security officer before his actions the day of the shooting could be investigated.
On March 10, Peterson was photographed out in Boynton Beach, Florida with a female companion, according to The Daily Mail. He is donning a pink T-shirt and black shorts, along with a baseball cap and a fanny pack.
The outlet also reports that Peterson’s resignation came with a $60,000 pension that he will get to keep, unless he is federally charged with a failure to act. Experts say that it is tough to prove, however.
Peterson reportedly stood outside of the school for four minutes during the six-minute shooting. Recently, one of his stepdaughters said that she feels he is a “coward.”
Speaking to reporters, 23-year-old Sarah De Luca, whose stepfather is 54-year-old Peterson, criticized the former deputy for not taking action during the school shooting on Feb. 14.
“Both of their guns shoot bullets, he didn’t have a water gun,” De Luca said. “He’s a giant, he’s 6ft 4in. I feel like the shooter would have been scared of Scot in his uniform running towards him. I do feel Scot is a coward.”
“If he was too soft to do something, he shouldn’t have signed up to be a cop. I’d be pretty upset if I was a parent,” she added, according to the Daily Mail.
Following Peterson’s resignation, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel told reporters, “I am devastated. Sick to my stomach. He never went in.”
Not long after Israel’s comments, President Donald Trump commented.
“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. That’s a case where somebody was outside, they’re trained, they didn’t react properly under pressure or they were a coward,” Trump said.
As has been widely reported, on Valentine’s Day, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz walked into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida and opened fire, killing 17 students and teachers. Cruz was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder, one for each of the people he confessed to killing.
The prosecuting attorneys are seeking the death penalty for Cruz.
