An arbitration ruling this week upheld the firing of a Broward County Sheriff’s Deputy in the aftermath of the 2018 Parkland school mass shooting.
Former Deputy Eric Eason was fired for failing to act during the Feb. 14, 2018 attack by a gunman who murdered 14 students and three staff members at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Eason was one of the first officers to reach the school at the time of the shooting, but instead of stopping to communicate and coordinate with deputies on the scene, he drove past them to nearby Westglades Middle School, according to the report.
Eason never moved towards gunfire and the arbitration report said his only positive involvement in the shooting was holding an ambulance door open.
In 2021, two officers fired for their actions during the Parkland shooting, Brian Miller and Josh Stambaugh, had their reinstatements upheld by a Broward Judge.
Another, school resource officer Scott Peterson was acquitted of criminal charges in 2023 related to his inaction at the school.
The Parkland school shooter formally received a sentence of life without parole in November 2022. The jury in the three-month penalty trial voted 9-3 on Oct. 13, 2022, to sentence the gunman to death, but Florida law required unanimity for that sentence to be imposed.
READ MORE: Timeline: How Broward deputies failed to help Mary Gingles before triple homicide in Tamarac
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