Wide disagreement reigns in trial of deputy accused of not stopping Parkland killer

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The prosecution and defence in the trial of a Florida sheriff's deputy accused of not preventing some of the Parkland school shooting murders gave wildly divergent opening statements Wednesday, setting the stage for a trial that is the first of its kind in U.S. history.

Prosecutor Steven Klinger told jurors that former Broward County Deputy Scot Peterson could have confronted shooter Nikolas Cruz and stopped the deaths of six of the 17 people who died at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School five years ago. Instead, Klinger said, Peterson took cover rather than enter the three-story building where the shootings happened.

"A lot of heat was coming his way," Eiglarsh said, even after the sheriff said on national television that Peterson and his other deputies did the best they could with the information they had. Peterson is also charged with three counts of misdemeanour culpable negligence for the adults who were shot on the third floor, including a teacher and an adult student who died. He also faces a perjury charge; prosecutors say he lied to investigators. Peterson was not charged in connection with the 11 who were killed and 13 who were wounded before he arrived at the building.

Security videos show that 36 seconds after the attack began, Peterson exited his office about 100 yards from the school's 1200 building and jumped into a cart with two unarmed civilian security guards. They arrived at the building a minute later. He said he heard "two, three" shots, which is the basis of the perjury charge. Eiglarsh said Peterson was referring to how many shots he heard when he first got to the building and the detective never asked if he heard more after that.

 

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