The deputy who resigned after it was alleged he hid outside as students were being shot dead inside a Florida high school last week now has round-the-clock police protection at his house, a Florida TV station reports.
Scot Peterson, an resource deputy assigned to protect Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland "never went in" to do what he was supposed to do, which was to have "addressed the killer. Killed the killer," Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said Thursday.
But when a WSVN-TV news team stopped by Peterson's Boynton Beach home to interview him, six Palm Beach deputies "positioned outside blocked our crew from going to the door," the station said.
"They prevented us from approaching the house," WSVN's Frank Guzman tweeted. Guzman said WSVN wanted to talk to Peterson about his resignation.
According to another reporter, WPTV-TV's Andrew Lofholm, Peterson's family is believed to have asked for the protection.
In 2014, Peterson was named School Resource Officer of the Year for the City of Parkland, with the district raving, "Deputy Peterson has proven to be reliable in handling issues with tact and judgment."
But Israel told reporters that while Peterson was armed and on duty throughout the Valentine's Day bloodbath in which 17 were killed and "clearly" knew there was a shooting in progress, he was seen doing "nothing" on a security video.
"Scot Peterson was absolutely on campus through this entire event. He was armed. He was in uniform," Israel said, according to WPBF-TV.
Israel added: "I am devastated. Sick to my stomach."
Israel had launched an internal investigation of Peterson's behavior and suspended him without pay pending the results of the probe — but Peterson resigned.
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