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Andrew Pollack, the outspoken father of a daughter who was killed in the Parkland, Fla., high school shootings in February, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Broward County deputy and school resource officer Scot Peterson for retreating outside with fleeing students rather than confront suspected shooter Nikolas Cruz.
“I filed a wrongful death suit against Deputy [Scot] Peterson today. I want to expose that coward so bad. Where ever [sic] he goes I want people to recognize him and say that’s one of the cowards of Broward. The SRO [school resource officer] that let those children and teachers die on the 3rd floor!” he tweeted.
Pollack’s daughter Meadow Pollack was among 14 students and three school employees allegedly killed by Cruz. He noted further that his suit is not about money.
“This suit has nothing to do with money. I want to be sure anywhere he goes in this country he will be recognized as the coward that could have gone in and saved students and teachers on the third floor,” Pollack tweeted.
This suit has nothing to do with money. I want to be sure anywhere he goes in this country he will be recognized as the coward that could have gone in and saved the students and teachers on the third floor.
— Andrew Pollack (@AndrewPollackFL) May 1, 2018
Peterson, 54, was suspended without pay after the Valentine’s Day shooting. He resigned shortly afterward, The Washington Times noted. Video footage released after the shootings showed that Peterson remained outside Marjory Douglas High School as the gunman shot and killed students and faculty inside.
Broward Sheriff Scott Israel told reporters after the incident that Peterson should have followed department procedure and gone after the shooter. Peterson’s attorney, Joseph DiRuzzo, argued in a long statement Feb. 26 that his client believed the shots were coming from outside the building. As such, Peterson took up a tactical position with his rifle, which he said followed department guidelines. (Related: The buck stops… elsewhere: Broward County Sheriff Israel REFUSES to accept responsibility despite multiple leadership failures during Parkland shooting.)
Pollack’s lawsuit, which was filed on Monday in Broward County Circuit Court, also names the estate of the admitted shooter’s mother, the late Lynda Cruz, in addition to the mental health treatment centers where Nikolas Cruz was a patient before the attack.
“Peterson is my main target,” Pollack told the Miami Herald, according to the Times. “He could have stopped it. Could have saved my kid. Nobody should be able to no do their job, receive a pension and ride off into the sunset.”
Pollack showed up at the White House to vent his frustrations at a listening session hosted by President Donald J. Trump. He was quick to blame the inaction of Peterson and others but not the gun used in the murders.
News of Pollack’s suit comes on the heels of a separate report that adds additional details regarding the inactions of Broward County Sheriff’s Deputies the day of the shooting.
As reported by The National Sentinel:
Reports immediately following the shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Valentine’s Day noted that deputies from the Broward County Sheriff’s Department waited outside as alleged killer Nikolas Cruz was murdering students and staff inside.
Those reports also noted that the school’s armed resource officer, Deputy Scot Peterson, failed to enter the school as well while shots were being fired, leaving millions of Americans — as well as grieving parents — stunned and angry.
But a new report from the Coral Springs Police Department contains new, even more damning, details about what has become the worst school shooting in Florida’s history.
In addition, BSO deputies made no attempt to advance towards the school during the first critical moments of the incident, much less make an effort to enter the building, even though a deputy hiding behind a tree knew that the shooter was on the third floor.
“I was advised by an unknown BSO Deputy taking cover behind a tree, ‘he is on the third floor,’” Coral Springs Officer Bryan Wilkins wrote in a report following the shootings that recounted and documented his own actions.
See more news and information on mass shootings at Shootings.news.
J.D. Heyes is editor of The National Sentinel and a senior writer for Natural News and News Target.
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