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On the afternoon of Valentine’s Day, a 19 year old man walked into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida and murdered seventeen people and injured fourteen more. This was one of the most deadly school massacres, and the number of mistakes law enforcement made are mind-blowing.

The sheriff’s department had been told repeatedly that this shooter was a potential threat. Just three months ago, a tipster said this nineteen year old was potentially a “school shooter in the making.”   The shooter himself even called the police to tell them he was suffering after his mother died. Even though the sheriff’s department (and the FBI) should’ve known this person was possibly planning a school shooting, they did nothing.

And that’s what the officer at the school did as well. Senior Brandon Huff saw an armed school resource officer behind a stairwell wall in a bullet proof vest. He was “just standing there, and he had his gun drawn. And he was just pointing it at the building. And you could — shots started going off inside,” Huff said. “You could hear them going off over and over. And he was just talking on the radio, and he never did anything for four minutes.” It was later reported that three other Broward deputies showed up and stood behind their patrol cars instead of going inside to help fight the shooter.

After much national criticism, authorities released video footage showing the outside of the school while the gunman was inside killing people.  The Miami Herald has the story:

It begins shortly after gunfire erupted, with Peterson and civilian security monitor Kelvin Greenleaf walking with purpose outside an administration building, clearly alarmed by sounds. When the fire alarm is triggered — apparently by the smoke of the gunfire — the two begin running, get into a golf cart and speed toward Building 12.

The angle of the remaining footage shows the two pull up to the southeast corner of Building 12 as what appears to be a group of students – the images are blurred under orders from the judge – appear to be moving about frantically on a lawn. Peterson and Greenleaf can be seen waving, then the school officer assumes a position that is partially obstructed by a pole.

The footage apparently shows Peterson remaining in that area for the next 20-plus minutes of the clip. Greenleaf appears to leave the view. Other officers show up, though it is not clear from the video whether they are BSO or Coral Springs officers, and students are eventually led out of the building.

The footage does not show Cruz, who shot up the inside of the school for about six minutes. It took officers 11 minutes to finally enter the building from the time the shooting was first reported.

Though the footage is limited, you can see Broward Deputy Scot Peterson’s actions…. Or rather, his dismaying lack of action.  (There is no carnage visible on the film.)

Image Credit: Screen Cap

Hat Tip: Miami Herald

About The Author

Mark was a co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, and served as the national coordinator. He left the organization to work more broadly on expanding the self-governance movement beyond the partisan divide. Mark appears regularly on television in outlets as diverse as MSNBC, ABC, NBC, Fox News, CNN, Bloomberg, Fox Business and the BBC. He’s highly sought after for the tea party perspective from print and electronic media outlets, from the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, L.A. Times, Washington Examiner, Politico and the The Hill. Mark blogs at MarkMeckler.com, and his opinion editorials regularly run in many of the leading political newspapers both on and offline. Mark has a BA in English from San Diego State University and graduated with honors from University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law in 1988. He practiced real estate and business law for almost a decade. For the last eleven years of his legal career he specialized in Internet advertising law. When not fighting for the future of our nation, Mark is an avid horseman, and lives in rural northern California with his wife Patty and two children.

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