FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Friday marks Day 10 in the trial of former Broward Sheriff’s Office Deputy Scot Peterson, who is accused of taking cover as the Parkland school shooter killed six people and injured four others on the third floor of the 1200 Building.
BSO Deputy Arthur Perry, a deputy defense witness, took the stand Friday morning.
Perry was working as a School Resource Officer (SRO) from a nearby elementary school who responded to the Parkland shooting and like Peterson, took cover and didn’t enter the 1200 Building.
Perry told jurors that even after hearing the dispatch of shots fired, he did not go into the building and observed wounded student Kyle Laman in the parking lot and football coach Aaron Feis dead outside of the 1200 building and bullet holes in windows of the 1200 building.
“What are you doing behind that car?” Defense Attorney Mark Eiglarsh asked Perry.
“I am taking cover and scanning for a shooter,” Perry said. “I could see gunshots in those windows and based on my angle and the fact that Coach Feis was on the ground,
I was believing the shooter was outside West.”
He also admitted to watching other officers who did enter the 1200 building pull out the body of Christopher Hixon and another victim.
Perry told jurors that he still had no idea there was a shooting inside the 1200 building until he watched Fox News at 7 p.m. that night because no one on the scene
walked over to where he was taking cover in the parking lot to tell him, referencing that he had radio issues.
“All of the 911 calls on the cellphones were going to their dispatch and we didn’t receive any information at all,” said Peterson’s Defense Attorney Mark Eiglarsh. “It was a total failure on both agencies.”
Lead Prosecutor Christopher Killoran said Perry did proceed through the campus looking for the shooter.
“You weren’t dropped off in a golf cart right outside where the shooting is occurring right?” asked Killoran.
“No sir,” Perry said.
Prosecutors also suggested that Peterson’s friend (Perry) had selective hearing and could not hear during the shooting.
Killoran: Deputy Peterson, we are talking about the 1200 building, you are saying you didn’t hear that either?
Perry: “No sir, I can’t recall hearing that,”
Killoran: “And he is your friend?”
Perry: “Yes sir.”
The court also heard from Alex Wind, a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and March for our Lives co-founder, who said he could not pinpoint precisely where shots were coming from, but said they were so loud, he thought a “bomb” had “exploded in the gym.”
Killoran asked Perry about what he is trained to do, his response remains the focus of the case.
The state’s novel approach of applying felony child neglect charges, which defines the SRO as a “caregiver,” says he failed to protect the kids in his care.
The defense has told the court they think it’s an overreach.
“If you hear shots fired on Park Trails Elementary, what are you trained to do?” Killoran asked Perry.
Perry: “I am going to go try and locate those shots.”
Killoran: “To protect your kids on campus--the students on campus?”
Perry: “They are not my kids on campus they are students on campus.”
Killoran: “The kids that go to your school.”
Perry: “That’s not my school it’s the school I am assigned to.”
Legal analyst David Weinstein gave Local 10 News his analysis of the historic case.
Weinstein: “They are each wordsmithing and focusing on specific words, instead of the way the charge has been written. For example, his answer focuses on the words “your kids” It is clear that given the context, the prosecutor was not asking about Perry’s biological or adopted children, rather the “kids” who were students at the school.”
“Then in the follow-up question, Perry nitpicks the words, “your school” to say he doesn’t own or operate the school, but was assigned to work at the school as part of his job. But the questions and answers focus on the primary issue at the heart of the case, was Scot Peterson a caregiver for the students as defined in the statute that the charge has been based upon.” he added.
Peterson, 60, is not charged in connection with those killed or injured on the first floor of the building as he did not reach the building until the gunman reached the third floor. No injuries or deaths occurred on the second floor.
Peterson is charged with seven counts of felony child neglect for four underage students killed and three wounded on the third floor.
Peterson arrived at the building with his gun drawn 73 seconds before Cruz reached that floor, but instead of entering, he backed away as gunfire sounded. He has said he didn’t know where the shots were coming from.
Peterson is also charged with three counts of misdemeanor culpable negligence for the adults shot on the third floor, including a teacher and an adult student who died. He also faces a perjury charge for allegedly lying to investigators.
Peterson could be sentenced to nearly a century in prison if convicted on the child neglect counts and lose his $104,000 annual pension.
Broward Circuit Judge Martin Fein said closing arguments will be delivered Monday before the jury begins deliberations in what legal analysts describe as a “first of its kind” case.
For more information on the state’s novel approach of applying felony child neglect charges and Chapter 827, click here.