Parkland Shooting Surveillance Footage Released: Worst Suspicions Confirmed
“Peterson… appears to remain there for most of the rest of the 27-minute video.”
Surveillance footage from February 14 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting was released Thursday. The footage, which blurs out all individuals other than the officers, shows the activity outside of the school during the bloody massacre that left 17 people dead.
Deputy officer Scot Peterson was suspended after the department reviewed the footage, and prior to the public announcement of his failure to engage the shooter, resigned.
Footage was only released after the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Miami Herald, and CNN filed suit against the Broward County Sheriff’s Department and the Broward County School District.
The Sun Sentinel elaborates:
“The video speaks for itself,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that accompanied the release of the video. “His actions were enough to warrant an internal affairs investigation, as requested by Sheriff Scott Israel on Feb. 21. After being suspended without pay, Peterson chose to resign and immediately retired rather than face possible termination.”
The video released Thursday starts less than a minute after the Broward Sheriff’s Office said Cruz entered the school and began shooting. As Peterson is seen running to a golf cart, the first 911 call about the shooting is made to Coral Springs police, according to a Sheriff’s Office timeline.
In the video, people whose images are blurred run out of a building. At the time, according to the agency’s timeline, Peterson over his police radio said: “Be advised we have possible, could be firecrackers, I think we have shots fired, possible shots fired – 1200 building.”
The video shows a golf cart driving past the 700 building, adjacent to the building where the shooting took place. Peterson can be seen walking up to the 700 building and taking up a position by the wall, with a view of the building in which Cruz was shooting.
Although the video camera’s view of Peterson is partially blocked by a utility pole, he appears to remain there for most of the rest of the 27-minute video.
Peterson claimed he heard shots outside of the 1200 building, which is why he took up a post outside, rather than engaging the shooter. Dispatch records released last week (which we covered), revealed Peterson’s public account might not be congruent with the events that transpired.
Internal radio dispatches made public by the Broward County Sheriff’s Department Thursday appear to contradict Peterson’s story. According to those dispatches, Peterson said he heard gunfire “inside” the school. Worse still, “just as school shooter Nikolas Cruz was fleeing the building after killing 17 people, Peterson warned his fellow officers to stay away,” reports the Miami Herald:
But internal radio dispatches released by the Broward Sheriff’s Office Thursday show Peterson immediately fixated on Building 12 and even radioed that gunfire was happening “inside.”
And, just as school shooter Nikolas Cruz was fleeing the building after killing 17 people, Peterson warned his fellow officers to stay away — even as wounded students and staff lay inside.
BSO policy calls for deputies to engage an active shooter and eliminate the threat.
“Do not approach the 12 or 1300 building, stay at least 500 feet away,” a panicked Peterson shouted as people screamed in the background.
…But Peterson, according to the timeline and radio dispatches reviewed by the Miami Herald, remained focused on Building 12.
“All right… We also heard it’s by, inside the 1200,” Peterson said at 2:25 p.m.
But that’s not all. The second by second timeline also shows that it was eleven minutes before anyone entered the school.
It was at 2:32 — 11 minutes after the shooting began — that four Coral Springs officers and two BSO deputies made the first police entrance into the building, helping to “extract a victim.”
We’ve covered this story extensively. For previous posts, see here.
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Comments
Has the Broward County Sheriff’s Office released any b&w evidence of exactly what their current procedures/protocols are for a deputy engaging an active shooter in a school setting?
normal people:
1. check for badge, cajones & vertebrae
2. draw weapon, while reporting in & calling for back up.
3. move forward to contact using available cover & concealment.
4. defeat threat using fire power & maneuver.
BCSO policy: take cover like a sniveling little *itch then retire when the truth about you comes out.
Also BCSO: Contact Union representative.
Get a roll off official crime-scene tape out of the trunk.
Then call the Coroner.
But somehow the NRA and myself are to blame…
Beat me to it!
Yes. But Comrade Peterson followed his Leftist Administrator’s Orders perfectly!
Were always told by those who are opposed to the personal carrying of arms, “Call 911 wait for the police, they will protect you.”. How’s that working out?
i don’t know why everyone is so surprised: the cops aren’t here to protect you. even SCOTUS has said so.
they exist to selectively enforce laws, as directed by politicians, write reports, and collect a paycheck, then a pension.
and when seconds count, they’re only minutes away.
Your brush is too broad. I was a cop decades ago but I think my experience still holds. I never would have ordered any other cop to stay outside of a school with shots being fired. If I had, they would have gone in anyway as I would have gone in if so ordered by my commander. One time, I was 2 minutes from a shooting call at an apartment complex. I was obviously the first officer there and I went in alone and cautiously but I was going to stop the shooter if he was still active. All of the other cops I worked with would have done the same had they been there first so I was not special in any way.
People are surprised because Peterson is the exception to the norm. I never had the dishonor of working around a “cop” such as Peterson. There are some bad cops but they are not the norm.
Further, Coral Springs PD appeared to have done what they could when they arrived. The problem is BSO, the Sheriff, and Peterson and maybe a few others. Yes it takes cops time to arrive which is why citizens need to be armed but is reality even in the best case.
The key thing is that you were a cop several decades ago — things have changed. At that time, the schools and universities weren’t teaching white privilege, male privilege, 15 different genders, Islam good — Christianity bad, global warming, and all the other leftist brainwashing that’s become the norm today.
In many localities, police recruiting, standards, selection process, etc. today is looking for an entirely different sort of people, who are trained in a different way, with a different purpose in mind. Many police agencies today have become minority outreach programs, and officers have become social workers with a pistol they’d rather not have to carry, and with regulations that prevent them from doing anything useful, if they wanted to. Of course, there are still good agencies and good cops that do a proper job, just as there are still good schools and teachers, but there are far fewer than there used to be.
While the type and quality of police recruits in general as well as training has gone down in the last 20 years, that is not applicable in this case. Deputy Peterson was a 30 year veteran of the department. He was hired before the PC craze really got going. And, at least two of the responding deputies and the Coral Springs officers made entry upon arrival.
Peterson’s failure to respond appropriately may indicate a systemic problem in law enforcement, but all we can really infer from it is that it was an individual failure. He failed to follow established procedures.
As far as I’m aware, Peterson was going along with the program, and following the approved procedure. The sheriff praised his performance before the news people started hammering him, and he reversed his position.
No, the P&P of the BSO says that the first responding deputy is supposed to enter, locate and engage the shooter. They training manual for active shooter situations states that the first responding deputy WILL enter, locate and engage the active shooter. Peterson was not following the program with regard to active shooter situations.
He may have fallowed the particulars of the Promise Program in his routine duties, but that has nothing to do with his expected response under the protocols of the Sheriff’s office in regard to active shooters.
TX-rifraph, I’m afraid in the decades since you left the force that broad brush has gotten smaller as exceptions to the rule have gotten more numerous. A good friend of mine is married to a wonderful woman and live in the S.F. Bay area. But unfortunately her sister’s husband, my friend’s brother-in-law, is not so wonderful. He’s a police officer in a municipal police department in San Mateo county. He likes to volunteer for duty on Holidays such as Christmas because he gets paid overtime.
And I can tell you exactly where you’ll find him on Christmas. At home, with the kids helping them open presents, squad car in the driveway. He makes no bones about why he’s at home. Because he’s just marking time until retirement and he’s not going to risk a hair on his head for anyone else. The thing is, I need to emphasize again, he was not shy about letting me a total stranger know that’s he was what we used to call in the Navy “ROAD.” Retired On Active Duty. This had to be getting back to his department if he would tell just anyone how he never intended to stick his neck out for anyone. He told me this about 8 years ago and he was a loooong way from retirement. And apparently there was no stigma attached to him advertising to the world that his career goal was to become Scot Peterson. Just collect a paycheck, stay out of harm’s way, and then collect his pension.
I agree with you that he’s the exception to the rule, but I can’t believe these exceptions are especially rare anymore.
I also agree with you that the first actual cops on the scene of the Parkland H.S. belonged to the Coral Springs PD. I have some words for what the FOUR Broward County Deputies they found already there should be called, but police officers are not among them. You don’t “take up a position” outside you go in. That’s what I would have done.
Just so you know, although I was never a police officer but every ship in the Navy has a Security Reaction Force. I trained religiously in Shipboard Security Engagement Tactics and I was qualified on all the the appropriate weapons in the small arms locker at the time. The M9 pistol, the M1911, the M14, the M590/M590A1 and the M16. The keyword is engagement. If we have an intruder or a group of intruders in our ship, we are trained to go engage. Of course if there’s an easy way to do things we’ll do things the easy way. The nice thing about warships is that we have options the police don’t; if the intruders don’t have hostages and are stupid enough to take refuge in an internal space, we’ll just dog the hatch and flood the space (Damage Control Central is a good place to establish your command post for many reasons). But if the intruders have hostages we trained to do dynamic room entries. One of our most common training scenarios was that terrorists have taken control of the bridge.
Of course, I only trained for the possibility. I never actually had to deal with intruders. You could probably spend 10 careers in the Navy and never have to deal with intruders in a Navy ship. But if I had I am 100 percent sure I would have don’t what I had trained to do. What’s the alternative? Disgrace, humiliation. If I was guilty of dereliction of duty and cowardice I’d expect a general court martial, dismissal (the officer’s version of a dishonorable discharge), and some time in either the Navy Consolidated Brig at Miramar or Leavenworth depending on the length of my sentence. But I honestly don’t believe I would think about what would happen to me if I failed to act. I would focus on what I need to do in order to act. Assess the situation, my mission (what am I going to do about the situation), execution (how am I going to do it), admin and logistics and communications. Of course I’d already know most of this having practiced enough but I’d still run through the checklist just like you preflight the aircraft.
Because while the odds are you never will have to deal with this kind of situation, you never know which day will be the day.
https://cnic.navy.mil/content/dam/cnic/cnrma/pdfs/LegalPDFs/15-04%20Navy%20Releases%20USS%20MAHAN%20(DDG%2072)%20Investigation.pdf
https://www.odmp.org/officer/22054-master-at-arms-mark-aaron-mayo
https://news.usni.org/2014/04/25/document-heroism-medal-citation-sailor-slain-destroyer-shooting
That except is a bit confusing. I know numerous reports say Peterson was warning away other officers but the report reads like he might have been directing students and teachers outside to stay away.
On the police band radio? Think about that for a minute, how many teachers do you know carry police radio’s?
@christopher b
I think the muzzle blast of rifle fire and supersonic bullet crack might just have dissuaded other people from entering the building. That, and screams and stampeding people.
Of course, this is Florida, for some might’ve been there usual morning hallucination.
ouch, no edit function. I blame AutoCorrect.
Negligent indifference, accessory to murder !
Peterson is imminently qualified to work for the GOPe.
America Stands United in Hating Katy Perry:
https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/06/she-definitely-not-playing-her-strengths/
The point of this video being released ….
… to redirect attention away from the Sheriff && School Superintendent.
The Sheriff && School Superintendent are the real guilty parties.
By following Obama’s PROMISE Program and keeping the PROMISE Program, they will get MORE shootings. No, they will not change that.
Blame the Deputy, Sheeple, ignore the real guilty parties.
The department was being sued for the video and once the students were blurred out, he had no other excuse that would pass muster before a judge. Regardless, he, his other deputies, and his department, share responsibility and should be rigorously investigated and dealt with.
I am not just blaming him, but he was a coward that day and for that he deserves the blame and I hope that 17 faces haunt his dreams for the rest of his natural life.
But that doesn’t mean he is the only one to blame.
This was all intentional. With all the warnings and warning signs ahead of time from friends, family and classmates even an idiot would know Cruz was trouble waiting to happen. Hell, even Cruz called and warned the police about Cruz and they sat back waiting for the day he would make good on his threats and when he did they continued to sit back and allow as many casualties as possible. The even let Cruz leave the school and wander of to Walmart with an intermittent stop at McDonalds. Cruz didn’t “slip through the cracks”, he was ushered through by the police, the FBI and the school administration.
… for the purpose of attacking 2A, again. See “Fast and Furious.”
Exactly!
Naw, you are giving them much more credit than they deserve. Don’t attribute malice to what can be explained by negligence and incompetence.
45 calls made to shooter’s home
-2 calls made to FBI
-Attacked parent/classmates
-Took bullets/knives to school
-Suicidal behavior on social media
-Called cops on himself
-Threatened to kill people
-Expelled for violence …but sure, blame the NRA/guns/GOP
Acting FBI deputy director David Bowdich says Obama’s DOJ forced the deletion of 500,000 fugitives from the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) which is used to conduct background checks on gun buyers. pic.twitter.com/wqscSOPVVL
— Ryan Saavedra ???????? (@RealSaavedra) March 15, 2018
This story is interesting because it such a glaring failure on the part of a LEO. But, we already knew all this. Do not be drawn away from the rest of the problem here.
First, and most important, the Broward County School District made the conscious decision not to provide any access control or effective security, at the school, to prevent this from happening. If you make no attempt to stop a person, who is bent upon shooting up a school, or other facility, from entering, then you have already lost the battle.
Second, the initial deputies on the scene did not follow the training of their department and its P&P and did not enter the school and attempt to locate and confront the shooter. This would not have done the initial victims any good, but it might have save others from injury and death.
Third, several law enforcement agencies and the school system, along with the rest of the criminal justice system in the county, failed to do its job, by not taking legal action against Cruz when it could have been taken. It might not have made any difference, in the long run, but, then again, it might have prevented this tragedy.
This story and everything else about this episode defy belief.
If you make no attempt to stop a person, who is bent upon shooting up a school, or other facility, from entering, then you have already lost the battle.
Only if the “battle” has the goal of protecting the disarmed and helpless from attack.
On the other hand, if the goal is to make atrocities not just possible but probable, then it’s a formula for success. And why would anyone do that? To feed the gun-control stampede … as we see happening time after time.
When something keeps happening, almost as if it’s planned … then maybe it’s planned.
I have worked for a public agency. In my experience, these agencies are NOT in the business of engaging in practices which will cost them huge amounts of money and their jobs simply to promote a social agenda. If the Broward County School Board had thought for a single moment that they would have an active shooter situation in their schools, they would have provided effective security.
Mass shootings in schools are about as common as lightning strikes. But, to harden every public school in Broward County, to foil such an attack, would cost millions initially and have a continuing cost of millions every single year. So, the Board went the cheapest route and contracted for a single security officer from the local LEA. They gambled that there would be no attack and they lost. Even if Deputy Peterson had run right into building 1200, found Cruz within a minute and neutralized him, there would still have been casualties among the student body. It might not have been as high, but it would still have gotten the same huge media play.
People do not refuse to wear seat belts to become a traffic accident injury statistic to build a case to ban privately owned automobiles. They do it be cause it is convenient and they do not believe they will be involved in a traffic accident. The same is true here. There is no overarching conspiracy to allow these things to happen in order to ban firearms. It is just easier to do nothing to prevent these incidents than it is to take appropriate steps to eliminate them or mitigate them. But, these are typical politicians. They really do not care about the people whom they represent. The School Board has armed security at their office and school board meetings [they actually have their own police force of armed sworn officers]. And, the public does not really care about these things either. Once you understand that, life becomes simpler.
Mac, I think you’re ignoring the fact that providing adequate security isn’t entirely up to the Broward County School Board. They have to deal with federal, state, and municipal laws.
The fact of the matter is the leftists want children to be “protected” by a sign with a handgun in a red circle and a red stripe diagonally across the handgun. Just like pols in Sweden and Germany think that Swedish and German girls should be “protected” by bracelets that say in Arabic, “Do not rape me.”
Of course, none of these pols would every rely on a “no guns” sign or a “no rape” bracelet for their own protection. They rely on men with guns. Something leftist pols refuse to provide school children in this country.
Oh, yes, yes, Deputy Peterson was at the Parkland H.S. And he didn’t deter Cruz from shooting up the school. I think we need to explore that facet of this atrocity. Cruz after all had attended that school. He was eventually kicked out for bringing ammo, knives, and for committing acts of violence at that school. I think it is entirely likely that he had interactions with Deputy Peterson, and although crazy Cruz was not stupid. It appears he had formed an accurate assessment of who Deputy Peterson is.
Speaking of “crazy but not stupid,” Psychologists and Psychiatrists who study the criminal mind will tell you that mass shooters pick gun free zones precisely because nobody there can effectively defend themselves. Since their goal is to kill as many people as possible before the police arrive, they’re attracted to gun free zones like moths to a flame.
Not good enough for Pelosi or Schumer, but gun free zones are good enough for school children. Or, as they apparently think of school children, bait.
Can someone tell me why parents who lost children, faced with this information — and the litany of incompetence that enabled the attack — aren’t storming City Hall with torches and pitchforks?
Even the kids had enough initiative to “rally.” WTF is wrong with this picture?
Because something is really wrong with it.
The kids didn’t have the initiative for the rallies, they were encouraged by several organizations. Hogg and at least one other kid were politically active and apparently so were their parents, they became the “face” of the astro-turfed “movement”.
It’s not time yet, that will come later.
There goes the “Let the cops handle it” argument.
“… the Parkland mass casualty event unfolded according to a carefully constructed script between the Mainstream Media and the DNC. The unbelievable “David Hogg video” was actually made before the shooting, not during it.”
Florida’s Unconstitutional Gun Control Legislation Only The Beginning
http://stateofthenation2012.com/?p=96112
Yea, we don’t play that game here, so please go away and seek help.
“Then the Parkland shooting psyop exposed Emma as an accomplished crisis actor ”
http://stateofthenation2012.com/?p=96393