New audio recordings appear to contradict the defense of the armed deputy who failed to confront the Florida shooter

Reuters/Thomas Baur

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School is pictured in an aerial view in Parkland, Florida, U.S. February 15, 2018.

• An armed school resource officer on campus during last month's high-school shooting in Florida radioed that the gunfire was coming from inside the building, dispatch records show.
• The records appear to contradict a statement given by the deputy's lawyer, which said he believed the gunfire was coming from outdoors.
• The deputy, Scot Peterson, resigned last month after the Broward County sheriff said Peterson did "nothing" to stop the shooting.

The armed deputy at the Florida high school during last month's shooting apparently heard the gunfire coming from inside the building, contradicting an earlier defense his lawyer gave to media.

Scot Peterson, an armed school resource officer, resigned in disgrace roughly a week after the shooting. Broward Sheriff Scott Israel said Peterson did "nothing" to stop the gunman and instead stayed outside the building for several minutes while 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz allegedly killed 17 people.

But Peterson's lawyer, Joseph DiRuzzo, said in a February 26 statement that Peterson's actions were falsely portrayed and his character unfairly smeared.

DiRuzzo said Peterson believed the gunfire was occurring outdoors and responded by seeking cover and assessing the situation, as the Broward Sheriff's Office requires.

"The allegations that Mr. Peterson was a coward and that his performance, the circumstances, failed to meet the standards of police officers are patently untrue," DiRuzzo said. "Mr. Peterson is confident that his actions on that day were appropriate under the circumstances and that the video (together with the eye-witness testimony of those on the scene) will exonerate him of any sub-par performance."

But internal radio dispatches released Thursday by the Broward Sheriff's Office appear to tell a different story.

"Be advised we have possible, could be firecrackers. I think we have shots fired, possible shots fired - 1200 building," Peterson radioed at 2:23 p.m., roughly two minutes after the gunfire broke out, according to the records.

"All right… We also heard it's by, inside the 1200," Peterson again radioed at 2:25 p.m.

Yet as the gunfire continued and the situation grew more chaotic with students fleeing the school and flooding 911 dispatchers with calls, Peterson never entered the building.

Beyond, that, the dispatch records show that Peterson warned other officers to stay away.

"Stay at least 500 feet away at this point," Peterson radioed around 2:27 p.m., just seconds after Cruz stopped firing and ditched his weapon.

The timeline put together by Broward authorities shows that no law-enforcement officers entered the building until 2:32 p.m., 11 minutes after the gunfire broke out.