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Radio Atlantic

The ‘Coward of Broward’ Re-Examined

Radio Atlantic

The Atlantic

News, Society & Culture, Politics

4.32.3K Ratings

🗓️ 1 February 2024

⏱️ 26 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

After the deadliest high school shooting in U.S. history, in 2018, a video circulated showing the school resource officer taking cover behind the wall. He became known as the “Coward of Broward,” and was tried for child neglect. We talk to police reporter Jamie Thompson about what became of him. And what we are leaving out when we reduce school shootings to stories of courage or cowardice.  Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to fascinating explorations of our world. Subscribe today at TheAtlantic.com/podsub. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

We have breaking news and bear with us because we don't have much information at this time, but there are reports of a

0:15.0

ports-school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that's in Brower County. These are live pictures right now.

0:17.0

Six years ago, a gunman opened fire

0:20.0

at a Parkland Florida high school.

0:22.0

It looks like multiple injuries here.

0:24.0

This is a horrible site for these poor kids.

0:27.0

17 people were killed at Marjorie Stoneman-Douglas High School.

0:31.0

17 more were injured.

0:33.0

It is still the deadliest mass shooting at high school in U.S. history.

0:38.0

The latest we have from the Broward Sheriff's Office is that the school is on lockdown. They've told students and others to

0:44.9

barricade themselves in place and they're now searching for a gunman.

0:48.8

This is Radio Atlantic. I'm Hunter Rosen and we are revisiting that awful moment not because of the

0:56.0

actions of that day but because of the inaction. I sort of following the

1:02.0

story at the same time everyone else did.

1:05.0

This is reporter Jamie Thompson who's been covering police for over a decade.

1:11.0

Jamie kept tracking the story for years, largely because of the unlikely person who

1:16.0

wound up at the center of it.

1:18.7

Authorities releasing surveillance video that captures the school resource officer Scott Peterson standing outside of

1:25.4

Marjorie Stonman Douglas High School during the massacre. There was a very clear

1:29.6

image of a surveillance camera footage where he is standing beside a wall and on all the

1:35.6

TV shows they would sort of circle him in bright red.

1:38.4

Just saying this is the coward who stood by while children were slaughtered.

...

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