A former sheriff’s deputy accused of failing to guard college students throughout a 2018 mass capturing at a US college has been acquitted by a Florida jury. 

Gunman Nikolas Cruz killed 17 and wounded one other 17 when he opened fireplace at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on 14 February, 2018.

Scot Peterson, the varsity useful resource officer on obligation, had been charged with 11 counts of kid neglect, culpable negligence and perjury.

The 60-year-old put his head on the desk in entrance of him and sobbed with reduction because the choose learn aloud the “not guilty” verdict in court docket in Fort Lauderdale at this time.

The verdict spared him a jail sentence of 97 years.

After his acquittal, Peterson instructed reporters that he wished to speak to the mother and father of the scholars who have been killed, and that the victims ought to by no means be forgotten.

“If they need to really know the truth of what occurred…I’ll be there for them,” he stated.

“Only one person was to blame and it was that monster.”

He additionally instructed reporters, as he exited the court docket together with his arm round his spouse: “I got my life back. We’ve got our life back.”

Peterson was armed however by no means went inside whereas the capturing was beneath manner, in line with the Broward County Sheriff’s Office and surveillance video.

He is one in every of few regulation enforcement officers ever prosecuted for failing to take motion or present care.

Peterson didn’t testify in his trial, which lasted two and a half weeks.

A jury in October spared Nikolas Cruz from the loss of life penalty, as an alternative sentencing him to life in prison with out the potential for parole.