FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (NEWSnet/AP) — A former Florida sheriff’s deputy was acquitted Thursday of felony child neglect and other charges that claimed he failed to act during the 2018 Parkland school massacre.

Former Broward County Deputy Scot Peterson wept as the verdicts were read. The jury had deliberated for 19 hours over four days.

It concludes the first trial in U.S. history of a law enforcement officer for conduct during an on-campus shooting.

After court adjourned, Peterson, his family and friends rushed into a group hug, as they whooped, hollered and cried. One of his supporters chased after lead prosecutor Chris Killoran and said something. Killoran turned and snapped at him, “Way to be a good winner” and slapped him on the shoulder. Members of the prosecution team then nudged Killoran out of the courtroom.

Peterson, campus deputy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, had been charged with failing to confront shooter Nikolas Cruz during a six-minute attack inside a classroom building on Feb. 14, 2018, a shooting that left 17 dead.

If Peterson had been convicted, he could have received nearly 100 years in prison and lost a $104,000 annual pension, although a punishment approaching that length would have been unlikely, given the circumstances and his clean record.

Prosecutors called to the witness stand students, teachers and police officers who testified about the horror they experienced and how they knew where Cruz was. Some said they knew for certain that the shots were coming from the building. Prosecutors also called a training supervisor who testified Peterson did not follow protocol for confronting an active shooter.

Peterson’s attorney, Mark Eiglarsh, called several deputies who had arrived during the shooting and students and teachers who testified they did not think the shots were coming from the building. Peterson, who did not testify, has said that, because of echoes, he could not pinpoint the shooter’s location.

Security video shows that 36 seconds after Cruz’s attack began, Peterson exited his office, about 100 yards from the building, and jumped into a cart with two unarmed civilian security guards. They arrived at the building a minute later. Peterson got out of the cart near the east doorway to the first-floor hallway. Cruz was at the hallway’s opposite end, firing his AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle. Peterson, who was not wearing a bullet-resistant vest, did not open the door. Instead, he took cover 75 feet away in the alcove of a neighboring building, his gun still drawn. He stayed there for 40 minutes, long after the shooting ended and other police officers had stormed the building.

Peterson worked for nearly three decades at schools, including nine years at Stoneman Douglas. He retired shortly after the shooting and was fired retroactively.

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