School police officer hiding while shooting in the face of prosecution

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Fort Lauderdale, Florida (AP) — A former school resource officer accused of hiding during a shooting at a school in South Florida that killed 17 must convince a jury that he is not a negligence. , The judge ruled on Thursday.

Judge Martin Fine of the Broward Circuit Court refused to dismiss the child’s negligence charges against former Broward County Deputy Scott Peterson. Sun sentinel report.

Peterson, 58, worked as a school resource officer at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. Nikolas Cruz, who was 19 at the time of the February 2018 shooting, was charged with 17 single murders.

Prosecutors said Peterson did not come to the rescue as Cruz was passing through the school corridor. The law allegedly breached by Peterson applies specifically to caregivers, but at a hearing Wednesday, law enforcement officers claimed that law enforcement officers did not meet the legal definition of caregivers.

Prosecutors argue that school resource officers should be considered caregivers, unlike other law enforcement officers.

Fine decided that the jury could decide whether the school’s resource officer should be considered a caregiver, and noted that the jury’s instructions were included in that context.

Cruz faces the death penalty if he is convicted of the 2018 Valentine’s Day massacre, which killed 17 people and injured 17 people. Cruz’s lawyer said he would plead guilty in exchange for life imprisonment, but prosecutors claim his fate would be determined by a jury trial.

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