Scot Peterson defense rests, closing arguments scheduled for Monday
FORT LAUDERDALE - The defense rested Friday in the trial of former Parkland, Florida, school resource officer Scot Peterson without calling him to the stand. Closing arguments are scheduled for 9:15 a.m. Monday.
Peterson is charged with eleven counts, including seven of child neglect and three of culpable negligence for his alleged inaction to stop the gunman in a building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018.
Peterson also faces one count of perjury for allegedly lying to investigators about the number of gunshots he heard after arriving at the scene of the shooting, according to prosecutors.
Peterson pleaded not guilty to the charges. Closing arguments are set for 9:15 a.m. Monday.
On Friday, during the second full day of defense witness testimony, Broward County Sheriff's Deputy Arthur Perry testified he responded to the school and remained outside the building where the shooting happened. He told the jury he did not find out the details about the shooting until hours after the massacre.
"I didn't learn there was a shooter with victims inside the 1200 building until about 7 p.m. that night when I looked on FOX News on my phone because there was no communication telling us what was going on," Perry testified.
Deputy Perry said he never heard information on his radio from other officers at the scene.
"After the fact, we learned that hey, we've got one crime scene, one incident, we have two different agencies running two different operations that aren't communicating with each other and have two different sets of intelligence. It was a total failure on both agencies," he testified.
Peterson insists he did not enter the building where the shooting happened because he could not tell exactly where the gunshots were coming from.
No victims were represented in court Friday during the final day of testimony.
Peterson's attorney contended the former officer did his best to protect students during a chaotic and confusing shooting.
Defense attorney Mark Eiglarsh said Friday the trial is going very well.
"I am glad the world is getting to know what we've known for five years," he said. "The scene at the school was chaotic and my client did his best to secure it. Hundreds of people were there and were confused about where the shots were coming from."
The case highlights the expectations for officers responding to active shooters as the country faces a seemingly endless scourge of gun violence, with schools such as those in Parkland; Uvalde, Texas; and Newtown, Connecticut, etched in public memory as the scenes of some of the most devastating massacres.
Peterson, who retired as criticism of his alleged failure mounted, has maintained he did nothing wrong. Peterson has said he didn't enter the unfolding scene of carnage because he couldn't tell where the gunshots were coming from.
Prosecutors rested their case Wednesday, saying Peterson stayed outside the building at the high school while 17 people were killed and 17 others were wounded.
They say Peterson, who was the first officer on the scene, failed to follow his active-shooter training to minimize casualties during the six-minute attack.
He did not enter the building as shots were fired, according to surveillance video.
The shooter, Nikolas Cruz, pleaded guilty to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder and was sentenced last year to life in prison without the possibility of parole after a jury declined to unanimously recommend the death penalty.
