Mr. Peterson, who was fired, was charged with multiple felony counts of child neglect; a trial is scheduled to begin next February. He has said he did not confront the gunman because he did not know where Mr. Cruz was or whether he was firing from inside or outside the building. His lawyers have also argued that he should not be held criminally responsible for any lack of training or clear policy direction from his former boss, Sheriff Scott Israel, whom the state removed from his position following the shooting.
In a sworn deposition last year, Mr. Israel said it was reasonable for Mr. Peterson not to know where the gunman was. “I don’t think at any point he should have known precisely, unless he sees the killer, where the killer is firing from,” Mr. Israel said, according to an excerpt released by Mr. Peterson’s lawyer. Mr. Israel later told The South Florida Sun Sentinel that he still thought Mr. Peterson should have figured out Mr. Cruz’s approximate location and gone into the building to try to disarm him.
Other trials related to the shooting are also pending.
Robert W. Runcie, the schools superintendent in Broward County, Fla., at the time of the Parkland massacre, came under withering condemnation for what critics said was the district’s failure to properly monitor and address Mr. Cruz’s behavior.
Some of the victims’ families tried to force Mr. Runcie’s firing, an effort that failed in a 6-3 vote of the school board in March 2019. Two of the votes against him were cast by victims’ relatives who had been elected to the board after the shootings.
Two years later, Mr. Runcie was arrested as part of a criminal investigation into the shootings and resigned from his $357,600-a-year job. He was charged with felony perjury for lying to a grand jury investigating “possible failures in following school-related safety laws and mismanaging funds solicited for school safety initiatives,” the Florida Department of Law Enforcement announced. Prosecutors say he contacted witnesses to prepare for his grand jury testimony and then lied about it.
The authorities also arrested Barbara J. Myrick, the district’s general counsel, on a felony charge of disclosing secret proceedings of the grand jury investigating the Parkland shootings. Both Mr. Runcie and Ms. Myrick pleaded not guilty to the charges and negotiated handsome exit compensation packages from the school district, his for almost $755,000, hers for $226,349. They have pleaded not guilty and their trials are pending.
