Deputy who stayed outside during Parkland shooting begins receiving $100K annual pension

The Broward County Sheriff’s deputy who did not enter a Parkland, Fla., high school during a school shooting that left 17 dead has begun receiving an $8,702.35 a month pension from the state.

The Sun Sentinel newspaper reported Wednesday that Scot Peterson began receiving the monthly pension in April and will continue receiving the payments for the rest of his life, according to the Florida Department of Management Services.

Peterson was the armed officer stationed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14 when a gunman entered the school.

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Peterson resigned from his position in February after Sheriff Scott Israel suspended him without pay when an internal review found that Peterson failed to confront the shooter. Surveillance footage shows Peterson waiting outside the school.  

Israel said the deputy should have “went in, addressed the killer, killed the killer.”

Israel said the video made him “sick to [his] stomach” and left him feeling “devastated.”

“There are no words,” he said in February.

Peterson had been a deputy for 32 years and was paid $101,879.03 last year, according to The Sun Sentinel. His base salary was $75,673.72; the rest came from overtime and other compensation.

His pension of more than $104,000 annually is determined by the number of years he worked and the average of his five highest-paid fiscal years.

Following the shooting, Peterson said in a statement that he thought the gunshots were coming from outside of the school buildings.

Last month, the father of one of the students killed during the attack filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Peterson.

Andrew Pollack, whose 18-year-old daughter Meadow was killed in the shooting, criticized Peterson’s pension on Twitter Tuesday.

“The coward of broward, Scot Peterson is getting over $8k a month pension! He hid while my daughter and 16 others were slaughtered! How in the hell is he getting this?” Pollack tweeted. “That money should go to actually securing our schools! #FixIt”

The coward of broward, Scot Peterson is getting over $8k a month pension! He hid while my daughter and 16 others were slaughtered! How in the hell is he getting this?

That money should go to actually securing our schools! #FixIt https://t.co/Zv5zT3lDgP

— Andrew Pollack (@AndrewPollackFL) May 15, 2018

Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jaime was also killed, said the pension “infuriates” him.

“This infuriates me in ways people cannot comprehend,” Guttenberg tweeted. “My daughter would still be alive if this person did his job.”

This infuriates me in ways people cannot comprehend. My daughter would still be alive if this person did his job.https://t.co/MVYtMKjtGh

— Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) May 15, 2018

Neither the sheriff’s office nor the states attorney have indicated they would bring about any charges that would allow them to withhold Peterson’s pension, according to a letter from the Department of Management Services in March.

A state commission is still reviewing the police response to the shooting, according to The Sun Sentinel.

Last month, the Broward Sheriff’s Office Deputies Association voted 534-94 to express no confidence in Israel, asking Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) to remove him from office.