Parkland shooting victim's father sues resource officer who refused to go into the building as massacre unfolded
A Parkland shooting victim's father is reportedly suing the former resource officer of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who was armed and did not enter the building where the massacre was taking place. Reports state that father of Meadow Pollack, who died in the school shooting in February, filed a wrongful death lawsuit on Monday against former Broward County Sheriff's Deputy Scot Peterson and others, according to CNN.
A 19-year-old former student of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High school, Nikolas Cruz, opened fire on campus with his legally-bought AR-15 rifle, killing 17 people on February 14. Most of the victims of the massacre included students and teachers.
Other defendants listed in the lawsuit include Nikolas Cruz; the estate of his mother, Lynda Cruz; James Snead and Kimberly Snead, a couple who let Cruz live with them after his mother's death; and three mental health centers where Cruz was treated, reports state.
The lawsuit put special scrutiny on Peterson and nearly 26 pages of the complaint were about him. The suit claimed that Peterson locked down the school, which prevented students and teachers from escaping Building 12 during the time of the attack.
The complaint further mentioned, "The pusillanimous Scot Peterson remained safe in his position away from Nikolas Cruz, never once attempting to go inside Building 12, where the school resource officer knew the shooting was taking place, never once attempting to save a life, never once attempting to fire a single bullet at Nikolas Cruz."
"Scot Peterson waited and listened to the din of screams of teachers and students, many of whom were dead or dying, and the blasts of Nikolas Cruz's repeated gunfire," it added.
Peterson's lawyer, Joseph DiRuzzo III, previously had said that the officer did not enter the school building during the shooting because he believed that the shooting was coming from outside the building, according to reports.
DiRuzzo, in a statement, had said: "Let there be no mistake, Mr. Peterson wishes that he could have prevented the untimely passing of the 17 victims on that day, and his heart goes out to the families of the victims in their time of need. However, the allegations that Mr. Peterson was a coward and that his performance, under the circumstances, failed to meet the standards of police officers are patently untrue."
Meadow Pollack's father, Andrew Pollack, took to Twitter on Monday to announce the suit, saying: "I filed a wrongful death suit against Deputy Peterson today. I want to expose that coward so bad. Where ever he goes I want people to recognize him and say that's one of the cowards of Broward. The SRO that let those children and teachers die on the 3rd floor!"