Peterson was the sole school resource officer at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School during the shooting. | Joe Raedle/Getty Images Former Parkland school deputy arrested on 11 charges tied to shooting

TALLAHASSEE — Former Broward County Sheriff's Deputy Scot Peterson, who hid for 48 minutes while a gunman fired on Parkland students and teachers, was arrested Tuesday and will face criminal charges for failing to act during the school shooting.

Peterson, 56, was charged with seven counts of child neglect, three counts of culpable negligence and one count of perjury after a Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation, authorities said.


Peterson was the sole school resource officer at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School during the 2018 shooting, which left 17 people dead and 17 more injured.

The investigation into Peterson's response concluded that the career lawman "did absolutely nothing" to stop a gunman from walking onto the South Florida campus and opening fire, FDLE Commissioner Rick Swearingen said in a statement.

“There can be no excuse for his complete inaction and no question that his inaction cost lives," Swearingen said.

Peterson's arrest came after an administrative discipline hearing Tuesday at the Broward County Sheriff's Office, where Sheriff Gregory Tony fired Peterson and another deputy for "neglecting their duty" in Parkland.

Peterson faces seven felony charges for child neglect on top of four misdemeanors.

“We cannot fulfill our commitment to always protect the security and safety of our Broward County community without doing a thorough assessment of what went wrong that day,” Tony said in a statement.

Peterson’s bail was set at $102,000, The Associated Press reported. Once released, Peterson will be required to wear a monitor and surrender his passport. He will be prohibited from possessing a gun.

Peterson’s lawyer, Joseph DiRuzzo, cast doubt on the state’s ability to prosecute his client.

The charges leveled against Peterson are “a thinly veiled attempt at politically motivated retribution,” DiRuzzo said in a statement, saying blame for the shooting falls squarely on Nikolas Cruz, who is facing murder charges in the case. “We will vigorously defend against these spurious charges that lack basis in fact and law."

A 458-page report from the commission charged with investigating the Parkland shooting tore into Peterson for failing to confront the shooter and giving inaccurate statements to investigators afterward about what unfolded.

Peterson, a 32-year law enforcement veteran, spent 28 years of his career as a school deputy, including nine years at Marjory Stoneman Douglas.

Yet when a gunman came onto the campus on Feb. 14, 2018, Peterson was "derelict in his duty," according to the Parkland report.

There is "overwhelming evidence" that Peterson heard gunshots, but no evidence that he attempted to investigate. Peterson instead chose to hide near a stairwell as shots rang out on the campus, the report found.

"Peterson was in a position to engage Cruz and mitigate further harm to others, and he willfully decided not to do so," according to the report.

State agents interviewed 184 witnesses, reviewed video surveillance, and wrote 212 investigative reports on the case to gauge how law enforcement responded to the shooting, according to the FDLE.

News of Peterson's arrest broke as the Parkland commission convened for its June meeting. Reactions poured in from parents online but commissioners didn't comment on the deputy other than to announce his arrest.

Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jaime died during the shooting, told Peterson to "rot in hell."

"You could have saved some of the 17," Guttenburg tweeted. "You could have saved my daughter. You did not and then you lied about it and you deserve the misery coming your way."

Former Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel in November cast Peterson in a poor light, telling the Parkland commission that the deputy “could have trained for 10 years” but would never have been able to intervene during a school shooting.

Israel’s leadership and policies also were questioned after the massacre. Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended Israel in January, a decision Israel has challenged.