A local sheriff has revealed how an armed officer who was assigned to the Florida high school where a gunman killed 17 people last week, stood outside of the building while the shooting happened and did not intervene.
Broward County Sheriff Scott Isreal confirmed that Deputy Scot Peterson has resigned after he was suspended.
"I am devastated. Sick to my stomach. He never went in," Sheriff Israel said.
According to Sheriff Isreal, Mr Peterson, 54, was serving as the school resource officer of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. At the time of the shooting, Peterson was on site, armed and in uniform. Isreal said that footage from the school showed how Mr Peterson arrived at the building around 90 seconds after the first shots were fire, and he remained outside for about four minutes.
When asked what Mr Peterson should've done upon arriving at the scene, Mr Isreal said: "Went in, addressed the killer, killed the killer."
According to reports, Mr Peterson, who is yet to publicly comment on what happened at the school, now has officers guarding his home 24/7. Sheriff Isreal has also said that Mr Peterson is yet to give a clear answer as to why he didn't go into the building where the shooter was. It's also unclear as to whether he will face charges for his conduct.
Sheriff Isreal also stressed that he would not be releasing the footage of the incident and might never do so "depending on the prosecution and criminal case" of Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old suspect who is accused of carrying out the shooting.
Cruz carried out the massacre using a semi-automatic AR-15 assault rifle, police say, and he escaped the chaotic scene by disguising himself as a distressed student before being seen and arrested by police later on in the day.
Mr Peterson's role as a school resource officer involved being responsible for the safety and crime prevention in the school. Although, this is the loose definition of the role, and it does vary from school to school.
The resource officer is employed by the police or sheriff's office and is in charge of documenting incidents that happen in the school and has the authority to make arrests, should they be needed to do so. According to the National Association of School Resource Officers, it's believed that there are between 14,000 - 20,000 resource officers currently working in the US.
Local media report that Mr Peterson had been in his position since 2009 and, according to the Sun-Sentinel newspaper, he had worked in the sheriff's office since 1985, with records showing that his salary was $75,673.
Stoneman Douglas is set to reopen its doors on Wednesday, with teachers being allowed back into the building on Friday. However, despite the school attempting to go back to 'business as usual,' the three-storey building in which the attack happened is set to be torn down.
While it seems like a major lapse in his duty to keep the children safe, it's impossible to know how an individual will react in such a situation.
