I'd say he wasn't prepared to be at war that day and was probably thinking a lot of things, none of them right.

I won't berate the guy, because I have no idea what I would do in a situation of that magnitutde. I work in a trauma center (In the blood bank) and often wonder how the hospitals handle such mass casualty situations. The blood bank must be chaos, I can't even imagine what it would be like in the field.

The guy royally scrrewed up, burt can any of us say we can do better? Not until we've been there we can't. We can hope we would, but in reality, we just don't know.

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"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace." Jimi Hendrix

If you're collecting a paycheck for protecting children, you damn well better try to do at least that.

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The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W

I'm not sure of all the details, but I know he screwed up. I guess if your job is to protect kids, you should be ready for war.

Was he an armed security guard? Officer assigned to the school?

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"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace." Jimi Hendrix

From the very first sentence of the OP: "Former Broward County sheriff's deputy and Parkland High school resources officer Scot Peterson,"

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"Du or Du not-there is no Tri" - Yoda

Was he acting as a sheriff's deputy when he was on the school grounds? What the hell is a "resources officer"? Armed?

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"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace." Jimi Hendrix

From Wikipedia: "
School resource officers (SROs) are defined by the United States Department of Justice as sworn law enforcement officers who are responsible for providing security and crime prevention services in schools[1]. This article is primarily about SROs in the United States, though there are also SROs in Canada.

The United States Department of Justice defines SROs as “sworn law enforcement officers responsible for safety and crime prevention in schools”.[2] SROs are typically employed by a local police or sheriff's agency and work closely with administrators in an effort to create a safer environment for both students and staff. The responsibilities of SROs are similar to regular police officers in that they have the ability to make arrests, respond to calls for service, and document incidents. School resource officers typically have additional duties, including mentoring and conducting presentations on youth-related issues. SROs are not synonymous with school based law enforcement (SBLE) officers - which are typically employed by a school districts’ law enforcement agency, rather than local or city law enforcement - though they are often misused interchangeably.[3]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/...ool_resource_officer

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"Du or Du not-there is no Tri" - Yoda

Damn... The more you know.

No pass, he should have been drille dto death on what to do and how to react. To bad so many lives lost.

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"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace." Jimi Hendrix

Yeah, not looking good for him. Looks like he wasn't up for the job and people died.

Not familiar at all with how these guys are chosen. Are they the quality of regular full blown deputies or are they closer to mall cop?

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

Then he also wasn't trained to be directing his fellow LEO's to stay away from the scene, he is, putting it bluntly, incompetent.

I'm assuming he and the rest of sworn law enforcement in Florida have to meet department as well as state certification requirements and whatnot. That said, I'm fully aware that none of us knows how we'd perform when it's time to get in the fight, which is what he should have done.

That's where I'm critical of his performance, including his radio directives to other law enforcement officers arriving on scene. It boggles my mind that we had police and sheriff's deputies who never even came close to getting into the fight, with a BSO scene commander actually directing everyone to simply set up a perimeter and not directing anyone to, again... get in the fight. Unbelievable.

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

Ihe s former now because he segued as soon the day after it happened. He was a full time deputy at the time of the incident. This happens pretty close to me and all our schools have resource offices.

Wow, that's bad. In a way I feel for the guy, he clearly wasn't trained right or however the training was meant to weed out those who wouldn't respond properly, it didn't weed him out. He'll have to live with the guilt the rest of his life.

That said, lives were lost because of his non-response so I can't feel TOO bad. And ultimately I put this on the sheriffs department and their training protocols. They should have psych profiles and live fire drills and simulated exercises to make sure someone who won't respond appropriately is not assigned to protect a school, protect children.

All of this, to me, gets back to sheriff Israel. That man should've been out of a job already but after this has emerged I'd once again question his competence if his protocols can't weed out someone who'd react in this way.

I've done a fair bit of active shooter training. I'm not a SWAT guy or anything but I have far above average tactical sense and shooting ability. Nobody wants to go into an AR vs Pistol fight like this guy was facing but it's his job. He was certainly outgunned but he did have several things in his favor:

• He's better trained than the kid
• He has the element of surprise as he pretty much knew where the kid was but the kid wouldn't know where he was
• He probably knew the layout of the school better, even though the kid was a former student

He didn't need to go running in there Leroy Jenkins style and add to the casualty list but there are ways to do it tactically and with purpose. You gotta go in. Kids are dying. If you do nothing more than hide around a corner and draw the shooter's attention... that's a big win at that moment. But you gotta go in.


Telling others not to go in is inexplicable. Especially when you now have the numbers.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

To a certain extent, this boils down to what they are hiring SROs to do. This particular guy has been an SRO for decades. I guarantee, when he was hired and originally trained, school shootings were not on the radar for the program. SROs are typically on campus to deal with drugs, minor fights, general discipline type of stuff, as well as police/community outreach. They have not traditionally been there as a defense against tactical shooter situations.

It may be that police and sheriffs departments need to reevaluate the responsibilities and expectations for these officers. If they are expected to go into a building to engage an active shooter, then proper screening and training need to accompany that expectation. If they're not expected to do that, then the response to a shooter needs to be handled by other officers, and the SRO's job is probably to assist in evacuation and setting up an initial perimeter to prevent anyone from moving into the danger area before the response team arrives.

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Slowguy

(insert pithy phrase here...)

According to Sheriff Israel, in his interview with Jake Tapper, he's "done amazing leadership" since taking over as the Broward County Sheriff. He keeps using that word "leadership." I do not think it means what he thinks it means.

I feel worst of all for the victims. I don't know how many would have lived had that SRO gone in and done his duty, as he was sworn to do (and maybe none would have been saved... and we'll never know that now), but it's clear -- from all evidence so far -- that he didn't come anywhere close to doing what he was supposed to do, which is (as GMAN says) "get in there."

Fear is a normal thing, and there's no shame in being afraid as you engage the bad guy (or "the enemy," which is the term we (mostly) used in the military when coming up on these situations). But having courage means you can overcome your fear and do the right thing. Which in this case, was to engage the shooter and try to save lives. It's trite, and it's easy enough to say it here in a safe place, where none of us are being shot at (verbally, though...), but if you're not shooting, you should be moving (and reloading and scanning), and if you're not shooting and moving you should be communicating. I don't know that this deputy met any single one of those metrics properly.

Lastly, I thank G-d I wasn't in the shoes of those officers and deputies that day. Law enforcement has an almost unbearable burden and I tip my hat every day to them for taking it up and dealing with it.

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

The most accurate statement you made is that you don’t know how many would have lived had he gone in. Do we know that ANY of them would have lived? How long would it take to react, establish the shooters position then figure out a plan of counterattack? 30 seconds? Don’t know. How many rounds from that rifle could have gone off in that time? Not unreasonable to assume most fatalities occurred in the first few seconds as everyone was caught by surprise and before they could try and hide.

It’s one thing to comment on the lack of reaction. Another to imply a heap more lives (if any) were lost as a direct consequence. Sadly you’ll never know.

I think I pointed out that we'll never know if ANY action by the deputy would have mattered. But I think it's also fair to point out that the inconsistencies in his public statements versus what we now know -- from the dispatch tapes the Broward Sheriff's Office didn't want released -- don't comport well with what we all would hope a sworn law enforcement officer (LEO) would do in such a situation, which is get into the fight ASAP and engage the shooter. This is standard doctrine on the part of almost all police departments since the '99 Columbine shooting, where police and police tactical units were ordered to hold back and "secure the perimeter."

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

"Do not approach the 12 or 1300 building, stay at least 500 feet away," a panicked Peterson shouted as people screamed in the background. //

I thought I heard that either this statement or one like it was directed at EMS. If that were the case, it would have been totally the right call. EMS are not supposed to charge into an active situation, that is standard protocol just about everywhere, except Syria and the blue hats of course...


Just wondering if you left out some of the transcript and thus changed the entire context. I dont really know. And of course when this guy took this job it was to be a presence at the school for minor disturbances. He obviously got comfortable in that role as a de facto security guard. When the shit hit the fan decades later he panicked and did not do the heroic thing. Very few people are heroes in these situations, it would have been nice if he was one of those few.

The entire story is available at the link, which is in my OP. It's from the Miami Herald, I believe. I read it last night, and went through the materials available. I stand by my original characterization.

I also concede that none of us knows how we would react, of course. Having said that, we have a right to expect that the people who claim they are going to protect us, actually do that and, like I've said before; get into the fight.

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

So many forum heroes with no issues throwing people under a bus when in all likelihood you’d be pissing your pants behind a car perhaps blindly pointing a handgun over the hood firing randomly. As someone else pointed out when he started, this sort of thing was likely not on the radar. Was he adequately trained? If not direct your vitriol that way.

Teachers and school security SHOULD have a right not to have to deal with guns in the hands of kids. It’s pretty instinctive to not want to die.

You reap what you sow, stop singling out people. Honestly, what a fucked up society you’ve all accepted as status quo.

They did have intel, and relatively quickly from what I recall, that it was a single shooter. Did this SRO know that at the time? I don't know the timeline on that. Columbine was the only active school shooting that involved more than one shooter inside the school (that I can recall). I think two kids were involved in the Jonesboro, AR shooting, but they were shooting from outside the school. So one could play the odds it was a single shooter but I can understand the concern. Still need to go in.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

I had a long military career and, based on past experience and some actual trigger time, I think I would have done what I think this deputy -- who's a sworn LEO -- should have done, which is get in the fight. Fear is a natural thing. But you overcome that fear through action and doing what you know is right. Leaving even that aside, as I said, I think it's fair to criticize his performance in the carrying out of his duties because, from all appearances it looks like he failed badly when it came to his duty.

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

Agreed. He should have gotten in the fight. This much seems pretty clear to me, but again; I wasn't there, don't know what he was thinking or seeing and this is all conjecture on my part. But still, this one is disquieting to say the least.

I'm also curious about the level of training he received once he moved into the SRO position. He's a sworn LEO, of course, but I have a cousin-in-law who is a Detroit Public Schools police officer (they have them here, mainly because they really, really need them) -- which is different from a school resources officer (though both are sworn LEOs). He says they're only required to attend two range training sessions annually with their service weapon (with one of those being an annual requal on a standard pistol course). He and several of his officers (he's a supervising sergeant now), though, go on their own more often, and also pay to attend regular shoot house training and other tactical training events offered by various ranges and instructors.

He says that many SROs, once they've spent time on the job, tend to let the law enforcement duties side of the house slide in favor of interacting more with the "kids." Apparently, in Broward, there was also a program that sought to decrease the number of law enforcement interactions students had, in an attempt to end what's being called the "school to prison pipeline." That may be why this shooter flew under the radar, so to speak, because there seems to be evidence that the SRO had knowledge of several incidents on school property in which the shooter was previously involved but didn't elevate them to official law enforcement actions for fear of saddling the shooter with a criminal record.

I concede, though, as several others have pointed out; this is a lot of armchair quarterbacking. But if we don't do a "lessons learned" on this tragedy, and take steps to fix the manifest issues with the system that have been revealed so far, we're likely to just see it repeated again.

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

He was certainly outgunned but he did have several things in his favor:

• He's better trained than the kid
• He has the element of surprise as he pretty much knew where the kid was but the kid wouldn't know where he was
• He probably knew the layout of the school better, even though the kid was a former student\\\\\\

Since we are Monday morning quarterbacking this thing, I'm going to do a counter point to your assertations here.


First off he doesn't know it is a kid, an adult, one shooter, two shooters, or whatever. All he really knew at the time is that someone was shooting very rapidly with a serious combat weapon. He didn't know where the shooter was, just a general area. I can only imagine how many different rooms and hallways were in that building, it was not like it was someone out in the open and you could see them.


And him knowing the layout better or worse than the shooter, dont think that was going through his mind at all at that critical moment. Of course he knows it, and that goes back to my comment on how easy it would be to get lost in that maze of rooms, closets, hallways, and all the other cubby holes in a school building. And of course he was scared shitless, so whatever training he had from the old days was melted away from fear, pretty common thing to happen really with guys like this.


Like I said, really wish the guy would have kept advancing and didn't panic and then panic the first wave of others. But there is a distinct difference from SWAT teams and regular cops, especially cops that are put out to pasture at some school to serve out their days in a relatively quiet environment. I wonder if anyone has gone back to see how and why he got this assignment in the first place, and held it for so long too. That would not be a usual thing in the departments I know of, that would be a shit job or punishment for some incompetence.

Why all the excuse-making from several here (not necessarily you) for this gentleman?

I understand it's natural for us to not want to throw stones at this deputy/SRO -- and there's no doubt some armchair quarterbacking from some of us, including me -- but it seems pretty clear he failed in the only duty that was vital for him to fulfill. Now, none of us knows if we'd have done anything differently (even though some here have been in live fire situations, so we can draw some inferences from that, based on past performance under fire) and I freely admit that. But that really doesn't matter. He was being paid to do a job, one he'd sworn to do and took an oath to do (and that means something to us military folks). And he failed, miserably, at it. He bears no small amount of personal responsibility, in other words.

The more cynical side of me could only conclude that some are trying to keep the focus on the effort to ban AR-type "assault weapons," and that any attention diverted away from that -- such as discussing the deputy's manifest failure in regards to the tragedy, as well as the multitude of failed opportunities to deal with this shooter prior to his evil doings -- must be prevented from gaining any traction.

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

The story of this tragedy just gets better and better (or more and more tragic) with each passing day and new revelation:

Shooter revealed gory fantasies to his therapists years before the Parkland massacre

"A May 3, 2014, notation in a Broward County schools psychiatric file said Cruz “reported [a dream] last week of him killing people and covered in blood. He smiled and told the therapist that sometimes he says things for shock value.”

After Cruz’s disclosure to his therapist at the alternative Cross Creek School, administrators developed a “safety plan” to ensure the welfare of Cruz and others while the teen was on summer vacation. The plan included provisions for removing “all sharp objects from the home” and encouraging the youth to “verbalize what the problem is.”

If talking about “the problem” was seen as a solution to Cruz’s volatile behavior — and, in the short term, it may have been — it did not last. Portions of his psychiatric file, obtained by the Miami Herald on Friday, show a young man whose mental health exhibited frequent and extreme swings. His attitude would brighten for weeks at a time, then descend again into paranoia and anger."


Dozens of visits to his home by sheriff's deputies, many documented instances of violence and/or communicating threats while he was a student... and yet no one did anything to prevent him from purchasing firearms, which appears to be something they not only could have done but should have done back when he was at least 18 and committing acts that got him expelled from Parkland High School.

And from what I've been reading, some of these events and acts were forwarded or relayed directly to the SRO, Scot Peterson, who apparently did nothing about them, perhaps out of a misguided wish (or a directive, even) to keep the shooter off the so-called "schools to prison" path. How did that work out for everyone?

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

I don't think so. I consider this issue to be somewhat ideologically neutral. This guy's failure, and the general lack of resounding success of armed, trained campus LEOs (e.g. Columbine) is also not convenient either to the notion that prospective mass shooters will shy away from campuses with clearly advertised immediate armed response, or that a good-guy-with-gun is any kind of a sure bet.

I think it's not talked about as much because it's pretty easy to figure out. He was a coward. Next. You can't legislate LEO courage. Like you said, you don't even know about how trained people will respond until angry lead starts flying.

Nobody is making excuses. Some of us are offering possible explanations for what happened because it's irresponsible to armchair quarterback when we have basically no actual information. Why are you so determined and quick to shit on this gentleman? Maybe that's the question you should ask yourself.

Yes, he was being paid to do a job. Do you know what that job was? Do you know whether or not the job description of an SRO in the Broward County Sheriff's office included advancing on an armed shooter? Do you know what training he received? Do you know what tactics or pre-planned responses he was given by his organization to implement in this type of case?

The answers to those questions is, of course, "No." You keep saying "sworn law enforcement officer" as if every law enforcement officer has the same duties and expectations. A meter maid is a sworn law enforcement officer. A SWAT officer is a sworn law enforcement officer. A School Resources Officer, a chief of police, an FBI special agent, etc are all sworn law enforcement officers.

It may turn out that he was properly trained, knew his responsibilities, was actually expected to advance on the shooter, and actually fucked up. But right now, we just don't have the facts to support a definitive conclusion, and given the fact that the sheriff's office in general seems like a bit of a shit show, it wouldn't surprise me to find out that this guy is being scapegoated to some extent or another.

Maybe instead of asking why others are making excuses, you should ask why you're so hell bent on crapping on this guy, to the point where you suggested he should commit suicide.

The issue seems to be with you, not the rest of us.

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Slowguy

(insert pithy phrase here...)

This guy screwed up- but I feel at this point he is being used to detract from a department that clearly did not train him or others properly nor use intelligence correctly. The more we argue about him the less focus on the Sheriff.

Does anyone think this Sheriff should still have a job?

I'm an 18 year cop (homicide/sex crimes detective currently) with a lot of tactical training and an "active" shooter response under my belt (not a school ... gang/drug related shooting outside of a packed bar at closing time ... so somewhat different). The SRO was a failure. His job in this instance was to engage the shooter and end the threat as quickly as possible. He failed. He has to I've with that, but I'm not sure that's going to be an issue for this guy (that's me extrapolating *who* he may be and judging him harshly).

I could not live with myself had I not done everything in my power to engage the shooter and kill him as quickly as possible. Pistol vs AR? Yeah, you're outgunned. But the gun is the tool, your mind and training are the weapon. I don't want to get shot but I'm at peace with that possibility.

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*****
"In case of flood climb to safety"

That much is hard to argue. Several minutes went by in which he could have found the right course of action, but he froze, and stayed frozen. It was the wrong choice.

There's a strong likelihood of him entering the school, and encountering the shooter with a background of terrified students. It's pretty easy to see how he'd convince himself that he'd not only be going on a suicide mission, but that he might kill more innocents in trying to take out the shooter before he died.

That was a real possibility. There were no good options for him, but it doesn't excuse him choosing the worst.

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The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W

I don't think he froze. Nor do I think he "panicked" as Kahuna's link indicates. If you listen to the tapes, he was fairly clearly directing response to the buildings where he thought the threat was coming from, giving street names, building numbers, and directing where he thought responding forces should go. Yeah, he sounded excited, but not frozen or panicked.

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Slowguy

(insert pithy phrase here...)

God knows what was running through the deputy/SRO's mind. I've already said it, but thank G-d I didn't have to face what he bumped up against that day. I've apologized previously for my intemperate remarks about this deputy and my intimations that maybe the honorable way out for him was to eat his gun. Those words were wrong and I admit it. But I don't think I'm wrong here in my initial characterization of him in my OP on this thread, what with these new revelations.

Same as any troop out in the field and in a firefight or about to engage the enemy, this deputy needed to get in the fight and service the target or targets. Active shooter doctrine, including the doctrine apparently established by the BSO (his department), called for him to do so, in fact. That's what he swore to do, I feel, which is why I'm being harsh on him.

Lastly, I'll say it one more time: Thank G-d I wasn't in the deputy's/SRO's shoes that day, and law enforcement officers have a gargantuan burden they gladly carry on behalf of all of us. I can't imagine how he's managing to deal with the weight of his actions during the shooting. It must be a living hell.

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

I agree with you, after considering everything. I think what that SRO was handed was a huge sh*t sandwich that he knew he was going to have to eat, and he simply couldn't make himself do it. It's a damn shame and a tragedy but it is what it is. Maybe it was lack of (recent) training or a failure of the will or whatever. I'd like to think any one of us here would have reacted differently, all things being equal, but I simply can't say that with 100-percent certainty. Like you say: maximum rounds being sent your way and downrange has a way of focusing your thoughts wonderfully. So that's definitely a point in the deputy's/SRO's favor.

That shouldn't prevent or preclude any of us, though, from judging or criticizing this gentleman's actions, given what we now know about how he carried out his duties during the shooting. I know I sound like a broken record, but you have to get in the fight, even though you don't want to, and engage the shooter. You'll be afraid (and if you're not, there's something wrong with you and you shouldn't have a weapon), of course, but you'll do your duty in the end.

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

I don't think school districts and municipalities want to spend the money for even a single officer or SRO, let alone a pair of them. Just today, the New York Police Department pulled their last cop from the city's schools, in fact:

Parents up in arms after NYPD removes cops from schools

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

Boy, you're sure right on that point.

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

I heard the tapes. I don't mean physically froze, unable to move one foot forward like the soldier in the stairwell in Saving Private Ryan. I mean froze in the sense of not being able to compel himself to the proper action. He retreated to the position of Incident Command rather than threat neutralizer, which, I think it's safe to say, should have been his primary objective.

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The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W

Maybe. I'm not sure. That would assume that he knew what he was supposed to do and couldn't bring himself to do it out of fear. It sounded to me like he thought he was doing exactly what he was supposed to do.

I'm not defending his choice to remain outside, but he wasn't the only one who did. If I remember correctly, two other Broward County officers did the same. It may be that they thought that was what they were supposed to do, based on whatever training they had previously received. That's not freezing, in my opinion.

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Slowguy

(insert pithy phrase here...)

Well in the context of this thread, sometimes it's still wasting money.

That's being awfully generous. I don't work in an environment that would be targeted for mass shooting, and it's not my job to address that scenario in the off chance it should happen, but I've thought about it dozens of times over the years, about how I would respond, in any given scenario or location it would happen. I cannot imagine an armed officer--the only one assigned to the facility--wouldn't have preplanned this, and I cannot imagine his plan consisted of staging in a safe location and holding other responding officers at the perimeter while children were being slaughtered. There is no scenario in which I can envision this being part of his plan, his training, or his department policy.

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The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W