Samantha Oakley told former Broward County Deputy Scot Peterson’s jury that — even before the Feb. 14, 2018 murder of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School — it was known to dispatchers, deputies and administrators that the county’s radio system often failed in Parkland.
Oakley said, “Deputies could not hear what I was saying and also deputies wouldn’t be able to hear each other.” She had only been on the job for seven months and was on the last shift of her employment probationary period when she found herself handling the initial response to the massacre. That meant responding Coral Springs officers knew Cruz’s location, but Peterson and other Broward deputies were never told about those calls. The Coral Springs radio calls could have been merged into the Broward system during the shooting, but that required a supervisor’s order and it never came, Oakley said. She said the merger could have been completed “with three clicks of a mouse.”
David S. Weinstein, a Miami defense attorney not involved in the case, said Peterson’s testimony would likely have done “more harm than good” given that jurors may also be skeptical that he was a caregiver. Prosecutors concluded their two-week presentation Wednesday. They called to the witness stand students, teachers and law enforcement officers who have 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 1200 building. Prosecutors also called a training supervisor who testified that Peterson did not follow protocols for confronting an active shooter.