Footage has emerged of Deputy Scott Petersen bragging about confronting a shooter at a college in Coconut Creek, Florida. He was speaking about the effectiveness of the Resident on Campus Security Program (ROCS) at a 2015 school board meeting.
An addendum to the meeting’s agenda gave the following reason for the review: “[ROCS] is not adequately supervised, and operating with an expired lease agreement. Based upon the factors listed below, management should consider phasing-out the ROCS Program or restructuring the Program.”
Petersen, who was on duty at Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, acknowledged that “there were some issues” with ROCS.
In a gung-ho delivery style, Petersen stressed the program’s “accomplishments”, using his own prowess as examples.
He recalled getting a “chilling” late-night notification of a gunman at Atlantic Technical Center in Coconut Creek, Florida.
He described hurriedly getting dressed and “running out the door … with my firearm”, contacting Coconut Creek Police as he was rushing to get to the school, before “setting up a perimeter” and with the help of colleagues, apprehending the alleged assailant and “dusting him off.”
All without any hint of hesitation or fear. The only cowardice he spoke of was by the alleged assailant, who was found “hiding over by a bank.”
Referring to another incident and the moment he got the emergency notification, he described knowing it was serious, saying “you know when you get the hairs on the back of your neck going up?”
Again, he boasted of springing into action, detailing how he “grabbed my firearm … and ran into the cafeteria.”
According to his account of events, “as I got to the cafeteria, sure enough there were four males. They see me, they saw me peeking through the glass, they obviously fled.”
Petersen said: “I chased them.”
“I’m getting older, but I started chasing them” before “jumping into my car” and eventually “apprehending two of them …threw ’em in the back [of his car], kept going, grabbed the other two.”
Speaking to the board, he said: “Those are the accomplishments that I want you folks to realise too.”
He defended ROCS as a “great program” and argued for its extension to more schools. Credit: Broward County School Board via Storyful
