ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Broward County School Resource Deputy Scot Peterson said he thought the sounds of gunshots at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14 were firecrackers, and he wasn't sure if they were coming from inside or outside the school.
But that shouldn't have made any difference in his response, which was ultimately nothing while 17 people were shot and killed inside the school, said Dave Couvertier, a retired FBI special agent and crime prevention consultant.
The Broward County Sheriff's Office on Thursday released 30 minutes of surveillance video taken outside the high school following a judge's order, citing "strong public interest." The video's time stamps support allegations the sheriff's office made weeks ago regarding Peterson staying outside instead of confronting the shooter.
Couvertier, who watched the entire video with 10News reporter Josh Sidorowicz, said that based on his tactical SWAT experience, that a law enforcement officer in a situation like this is trained to always move toward a shooter.
"You have to immediately get to the threat because you have to neutralize the threat, because for every second delayed is another life being lost," he said. "It's not like it used to be where we'd just sit around and contain the situation and try to make communication and negotiate. That's been gone for a very long time."
The first moments of the video show what was happening about a minute after the shooting started. Peterson is seen at the bottom of the frame jogging down the hallway, then taking off in a golf cart toward the freshman building.
The video then shows Peterson and another person walking toward the building. It's at this point deputies say the accused gunman, Nikolas Cruz, had been shooting for three minutes.
Peterson is seen remaining outside the building. Though the camera's view of Peterson is blocked by a light pole, parts of him occasionally appear, ultimately showing him standing in the same spot for the next 20 minutes.
Peterson, who has since resigned from the department, has maintained that he followed his training.
But Couvertier says law enforcement is trained with the expectation to engage with active shooter, even without backup.
"Absolutely and when you look at the statistics of first responders in these type of situations, there's about a 47 percent chance that responding officer, whether it's one or two going in initially, that they will either be injured or killed," he said. "That's why training is so important in these types of situations, but when I look at this and I see the response, it looks like an untrained individual."
As a crime prevention consultant, Couvertier said the number one thing he trains law enforcement officers to think about in an active shooter situation is what to do in the first two-to-five minutes.
“When it’s an active shooter situation and you’re hearing the shots being fired, you’ve got to assume that’s what it is right off the bat," he said. "You go in."
"You can always back down, but if you don’t go in on an active shooter situation you’re giving the bad guy time because the whole goal of an active shooter is to kill as many people as they can in a short amount of time in a populated area."
Couvertier's biggest takeaway from watching the video?
"[Peterson's] actions actually helped the shooter, he aided the shooter in his mission," he said.
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