School resource officer responded to mass shooting in Florida but did not confront the attacker.

Two women attending one of the funerals in Florida. BBC/Reuters. 

A school resource officer responded to the mass shooting in Florida but did not confront the attacker. BBC. The officer, Scot Peterson, was suspended for his actions and then resigned. Video footage showed Peterson  arriving 90 seconds after the shooting began. He waited outside for four minutes and did not confront the killer. The attack took around six minutes. The video of his response has not been released. Peterson was the only cop on duty at the 3000 student school. 

My Comment:

Just when you think the multitude of problems that led to this attack couldn't get worse, it does. There is no excuse for Officer Peterson's behavior here. He had one duty that day and that was to protect those kids. He didn't and 17 people died. 

I have very little doubt that had Peterson entered the building more people would have lived. First of all, he could have shot and killed/disabled Nikolas Cruz. Even if he failed and was killed himself he would have bought time for people to escape, fortify their locations or for help to arrive. Finally, there is a decent chance that Cruz would have backed down after facing resistance. Given the type of mass shooter he was, I am guessing he might have even killed himself. No matter how it went I can't imagine that at least a few people would have survived that didn't. 

No matter the outcome if Peterson had acted he would have been hailed as a hero. Instead he is rightly denounced as a coward. He had one purpose at that school and it was to protect those kids. And he failed. He wasn't a civilian with a CCW that had no duty to protect others, he was a cop who swore to protect and serve. Hell, a lot of unarmed students and teachers showed more bravery than Peterson did even though they were completely unarmed. 

I am struggling to think of any mitigating circumstances. I thought it was possible that there was a policy that he had to wait for backup but given the Sheriff, who is embattled for his own incompetence, was condemning Officer Peterson, I doubt that was the case here. Such a policy would be extremely stupid as it has been shown that response time was the most important thing in reducing casualties during these crimes.

I think this informs the debate we are having in this country about what to do about mass shootings. Generally speaking, everyone assumes that police will be willing to do their jobs, but that wasn't the case here. I think this supports having teachers having CCW. Having more than one option to fight back would have been good in this case and an armed teacher could have done what Peterson failed to do. 

I also think that it's foolish to have a single officer in places where they are assigned. If there had been another officer with Peterson that officer could have acted where he failed. Either that or he could have shamed or forced Peterson to act. We need more than one person to respond to these attacks in case one of them is unwilling or unable to act. 

I think it is very clear that people are righteously angry about this attack. Most of that anger has been directed at guns and gun rights supporters, but it seems very clear that anger is misdirected. There was a series of failures here that begins with the school board and ends with the FBI. Officer Peterson is not the first person in this case to let the general public down. 

First of all the local school board had a policy in place that did everything it could to avoid arresting kids. It was very clear that Cruz was a very dangerous person and someone that committed multiple crimes. But because the school wanted lower rates of student arrests they looked the other way and only expelled him instead of referring him for prosecution. 

Local police failed as well, and not just Officer Peterson. Supposedly Cruz's house had been visited 39 times by the local police but very few reports were actually filed, let alone charges. And they went along with the school board's scheme to not arrest students to reduce the reported crime rate. 

And the FBI had it's problems as well. They failed to follow up on two tips that were given. They might be forgiven for the YouTube comment that Cruz made where he wanted to be a school shooter since people make stupid comments all the time and are mostly not serious. But the second tip was much more detailed and involved and should not have been ignored. 

All in all it was a massive law enforcement failure that Cruz was on the streets to begin with, let alone able to purchase weapons. Had people been doing their jobs he never would have been able to start shooting kids. Had officer Peterson stepped up and did his job fewer people would have died. That's the real story here and it's one that needs to be addressed. Gun control won't fix the incompetence shown in this case.