Scot Peterson, the school resource officer receiving the brunt of the blame for not doing more during the Feb. 14 school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, said things happened too fast for him to act cowardly.
Also, Peterson said during an interview shown Tuesday morning on NBC’s “Today,” he thought the gunshots coming from the 1200 building were more likely from a sniper, as in the case of last year’s Las Vegas mass shooting.
Instead, former Stoneman Douglas student Nikolas Cruz was unleashing the gunshots inside the building.
Peterson said he’d want the families of the 17 people killed at Stoneman Douglas to know, “I didn’t get it right, but it wasn’t because of some ‘Oh, I don’t want to go into that building,I don’t want to face somebody.’ It wasn’t like that at all.”
Read more: ‘It’s all crap’: Parents lash out after Parkland cop Scot Peterson ends silence
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As for accusations of cowardice, Peterson said, “There was no time. Things went so fast. .... I never thought a moment of being scared or being a coward because I was just doing things the whole time. It never entered my mind.”
The second part of the interview airs Wednesday. When media outlets reported Monday that a preview piece of the interview showed Peterson lamenting not going in and calling the students “my kids,” several Parkland parents responded acidly.
Max Schachter lost 14-year-old son Alex and told the Miami Herald Monday, “He did nothing. He stood outside. He knew the guy was inside killing our kids. It’s all crap.”