Florida sheriff who failed to confront shooter is a no-show at Parkland massacre hearing

Scot Peterson filed a lawsuit against the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission to squash the subpoena

The deputy sheriff who who failed to confront the gunman during the Parkland mass shooting in Florida has refused to appear before a state commission investigating the massacre.

Former Broward County Deputy Scot Peterson failed to appear before the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission, where he would have been asked why he did not enter the building where students and staff died on 14 February.

Fourteen students and three high school staff members were killed.

Mr Peterson’s lawyer Joseph Diruzzo stood in his place instead, and told the commission that he filed a lawsuit on Thursday to get the subpoena compelling Mr Peterson to testify struck down.

“As you can tell, Mr. Peterson is not here,” Mr Diruzzo said. “Mr. Peterson will not be testifying today. Earlier this morning, I filed a complaint with the court, seeking to quash this subpoena.”

Mr Diruzzo dropped the the complaint on the stand and then left the packed room.

As he left, a victim’s father in the gallery told Mr Diruzzo that his daughter would’ve been alive if Mr Peterson had faced the gunman. “He didn’t do his job,” the father said. “My daughter should be alive.”

Mr Peterson’s no-show was unexpected, according to Pinellas County sheriff and commission chairman Bob Gualtieri, since his lawyer confirmed that he would comply with subpoena.

“Just so everybody knows, the attorney who just appeared was contacted on Nov. 8 and he accepted service on behalf of Mr. Peterson, and he told us that Mr. Peterson would appear,” Mr Gualtieri said. “So we were operating under the premise, based on the representation of the lawyer who showed up and left that Mr. Peterson would be here.”

The commission could ask the court to hold Mr Peterson in contempt for refusing to obey the subpoena. Mr Gualtieri said the commission will have their general counsel to look into Mr Peterson’s lawsuit before going further.

Security video footage revealed that when the suspected gunman was shooting on the first floor of a building, Mr Peterson—who was the only officer on campus at the time of shooting ws near a neighbouring building.

In past interviews, the ex-sheriff told the press that he did not go into the building, because he only heard two or three shots, and was not sure if it came from inside or outside of the building.

After the shooting, Mr Peterson faced public scrutiny for his failure to do his job. Instead of complying with a suspension during an internal investigation, the 55-year-old decided to retire and collect an annual $100,000 pension.