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Florida deputy charged after staying outside school shooting

Posted at 12:51 PM, Jun 04, 2019
and last updated 2019-06-05 10:43:33-04

MIAMI — Prosecutors say the Florida deputy who failed to confront a gunman during last year’s Parkland massacre has been arrested on 11 charges.

State Attorney Mike Satz announced Tuesday that 56-year-old Scot Peterson faces child neglect, culpable negligence and perjury charges. Peterson, then a Broward County deputy, was on duty during the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School but never went inside.

Satz says the charges carry a combined prison sentence of nearly 100 years. Peterson’s bail was set at $102,000.

A Peterson lawyer didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Twenty-year-old Nikolas Cruz faces the death penalty if convicted of killing 17 people and wounding 17 others in the attack. He has offered to plead guilty in return for a life sentence, but prosecutors have refused that offer.