The trial against a Florida sheriff’s deputy accused of failing to confront the gunman who murdered 14 students and three staff members at a Parkland high school in 2018 continued Thursday, with witnesses called to testify regarding law enforcement officer training and standard practices.
Broward County Sheriff’s Office Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Samaroo was first to the stand Thursday as defendant and former BSO deputy Scot Peterson sat in the courtroom.
Peterson was the school resource deputy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School at the time of the massacre five years ago.
Surveillance video showed that he remained outside a three-story classroom building at the school during the gunman’s six-minute attack on Feb. 14, 2018.
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Lt. Col. Samaroo shed light on the frequency and topics of law enforcement officer training over his approximately 30 years with the department. As a leader of the department, he said he taught classes on responding to violent scenarios, self-defense, and building searches, among other topics.
Records specifically showed that Peterson underwent various trainings on active shooters and tactical pistol, as well as school resource officer-specific courses.
“Time is of the essence,” Samaroo said. “Our top priority is to stop the killing by any possible means.”
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Training documents presented in court also noted that school resources deputies, as Peterson was on the day of the Parkland school shooting, should lead other responding law enforcement personnel in the event of an active shooter, because they would have a greater understanding of the school environment and layout.
“One deputy may actively engage or search for the shooter,” prosecutor Steven Klinger said.
Samaroo said that the April 20, 1999 mass shooting and attempted bombing at Columbine High School in Colorado changed the way law enforcement officers trained for and responded to active shooter situations – no longer needing to wait for a team to respond, and going toward the sound of gunfire, even if a precise location is not known.
“If you hear gunshots, you’ve got to go toward it,” Samaroo said. “It means people are being executed.”
Earlier this month, Peterson insisted that he did not know where the shots were coming from on that Feb. 2018 day, but what he did see and hear are key issues in this ongoing trial.
As of noon, the cross-examination of Samaroo had only just begun. Peterson could be seen conferring with his defense attorney, Mark Eiglarsh, throughout the testimony.
Eiglarsh previously told jurors that Peterson was “thrown under the bus” to preserve the career of then-Sheriff Scott Israel. In 2022, Israel became the police chief of the City of Opa-locka in Miami-Dade County.
A jury of four women and two men who will decide the case have heard emotional testimonies from other witnesses over the course of the trial.
The gunman has pled guilty and received a life sentence.
