Parkland high school to perform re-enactment of mass shooting as part of civil lawsuit

Family members of the victims and congress members will tour the building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School before it’s torn down. Then there will be a re-enactment of the mass shooting.

While this may appear insensitive, the re-enactment is part of the civil lawsuit against the armed school resource officer who never went into the building when those shots were being fired.

The re-enactment of the 2018 Parkland shooting will take place at a 12,000 square-foot building near Marjory Stoneman Douglas. This is part of a civil lawsuit that accuses school resource officer Scot Peterson, a deputy with the Broward County Sheriff’s Office of failing to protect the victims.

Peterson was the only armed school resource officer at Marjory Stoneman Douglas at the time of the shooting. When he heard the gunshots ring out, Peterson went toward the building, but stayed outside and never went in.

Peterson was recently acquitted of all charges in the criminal trial against him. However, the burden of proof is lower in a civil lawsuit.

The re-enactment will have experts fire gunshots from the same spots as the Parkland shooter with an identical AR-15 style semiautomatic rifle as to decide if Peterson’s argument of being unable to hear where the shots were coming from are valid. The bullets will be caught by a safety device.

Parkland sent out warnings to nearby residents to prevent panic when they hear the gunshots and can prepare mentally. While roads have been shut down for the re-enactment, the shots will be heard as far as a mile or more from the school.

The victims’ families feel Peterson’s job was to protect and serve, and on this tragic day, they claim he did not fulfill his duties.

“At the end of the day, Scot Peterson has to live with himself that he didn’t go in those buildings. He didn’t go in the building and save those kids, and that’s a decision forever. He’ll live with and the public will always hold him out to be a coward. To me, that’s just as bad as being criminally guilty in the court,” Hunter Pollack, one of the victim’s brothers said. “Hopefully the civil trial will hold them accountable. That’s the purpose of the reenactment: is just to show the jury that where Peterson was standing, he could hear the gunshots going off. I think it’s necessary.”

The simulation is set to begin at 10 a.m., after members of congress and victim’s families visit the building.

Following the visit, the Broward School District says it will begin demolishing the building.