Sheriff Says Armed Resource Officer Could’ve Stopped Parkland Shooting But ‘Never Went In’ [UPDATED]

Officer Scott Peterson, an armed school resource officer at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School is alleged to have not entered the school’s campus “in upward of four minutes” after Nikolas Cruz began his killing spree.

Peterson, an actual deputy in the Broward County Sheriff’s Department, has not offered up any explanation as to why he is alleged to have remained outside as Cruz began shooting, eventually killing 17 people. Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, however, offered up a statement this evening on the allegations.

“What I saw was a deputy, alive, at the west side of building 12, take up a position, and he never went in,” Israel said.

Reporters asked Israel how he felt, upon hearing these allegations against Peterson.

“Devastated. Sick to my stomach. There are no words,” he said. “These families lost their children. We lost coaches. I’ve been to the funerals. I’ve been to the homes where they sit in shiva. I’ve been to the vigils.”

When asked by a reporter what Peterson should have done, Israel responded curtly: “Went in. Addressed the killer. Killed the killer.”

CNN’s Martin Savidge reminded Wolf Blitzer that, after Columbine, officers of the law are required to confront of a school shooter.

“There was an armed deputy, a good guy with a gun,” he said. “There was a bad guy with a gun on the inside, and it did not work the way it was supposed to.”

Peterson has resigned from his position and an internal affairs investigation is underway. He had been the resource officer for Stoneman Douglas High School since 2009.

Watch above, via CNN.

UPDATE 9:58 p.m. EST

According to a report by the Miami Herald, the Broward County Sheriff’s office also received a warning late last year that alleged killed Cruz “could be a school shooter in the making.”

[image via Joe Raedle/Getty Images]

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