Parkland school shooting footage shows deputy outside freshman building

Alexi C. Cardona and Patrick Riley, Naples Published 4:44 p.m. ET March 15, 2018 | Updated 6:43 p.m. ET March 15, 2018

Surveillance video shows then-deputy Scot Peterson standing outside for 27 minutes at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School while Nikolas Cruz killed 17 students and staff. USA TODAY

Surveillance footage released Thursday shows former school resource Deputy Scot Peterson standing away from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School building where students and faculty were being shot, then running out of view, not to be captured again on other school cameras.

The 27-minute video was released after multiple media organizations, including USA TODAY, petitioned for it to be made public. The footage shows Peterson’s movements during the Feb. 14 shooting from four camera angles.

In the days following the massacre, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said Peterson should have gone into the building and “killed the killer.”

Peterson retired from the Broward Sheriff’s Office following the criticism.

Peterson's attorney, Joseph A. DiRuzzo III, previously said in a statement the deputy thought shots were coming from outside the school and followed protocol for such an incident. Peterson took a "tactical position" outside the building and initiated a Code Red lockdown, according to the attorney.

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Accused shooter Nikolas Cruz, 19, arrived at the Parkland school in an Uber at 2:19 p.m., entered Building 12 from the west side, pulled a fire alarm and opened fire at 2:21 p.m using an AR-15. He killed 14 students and three staff members and injured 17 others.

The first minute of the video shows Peterson walking with a school staff member down a hallway in Building 1 at 2:22:21 p.m. The deputy is seen talking on the school radio on his right shoulder and running out of the camera’s view. School radio chatter is not recorded.

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Newly released surveillance video shows what happened outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School during the deadly shooting that took 17 lives. USA TODAY

Seconds later, Peterson and the school staffer get picked up by someone operating a golf cart and ride toward the three-story freshman building.

While riding in the golf cart, the deputy uses the police radio on his left shoulder to notify that shots were fired in the freshman building.

Students, who are redacted from the video, are seen walking out of their classes because of the fire alarm around 2:23:22 p.m. The students then run back toward their classrooms in Building 13, which is directly east of the freshman building.

At 2:23:48 p.m., Peterson and the school staffer are seen running toward a shaded area near Building 13 and pointing up. The deputy stops running, turns to face the freshman building and stands 25 to 30 yards from it. The shooting ended about six minutes after it started, and the deputy didn’t move from his spot.

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Peterson stood by the building for about 26 minutes. He walks out of camera range at 2:50:39 p.m. and isn’t seen in school surveillance footage again.