Who Is Andrew Pollack? Parkland Shooting Victim's Father Sues Former Deputy, Others

Andrew Pollack, the father of Meadow Pollack, one the students who died during the Feb. 14 shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, has now filed a wrongful death lawsuit against former Broward County Sheriff’s Deputy Scot Peterson, the shooter Nikolas Cruz, the estate of his mother Lynda Cruz, James and Kimberly Snead, a couple who let Cruz live with them and three mental health centers where Cruz was being treated.

On Tuesday, Pollack confirmed that he had filed a lawsuit and lashed out at Peterson on Twitter saying he wishes to “expose the coward."

Pollack, born in Oceanside, New York, is a school safety activist and is largely credited for passing the "Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act" (Florida Senate Bill: 7026).

After the fatal shooting at Parkland, which killed 14 students and three teachers including his 18-year-old daughter, Pollack met with President Donald Trump and his cabinet, Florida governor Rick Scott and plenty of lawmakers in order to increase the federal funding to tighten school security in every school in the U.S.

In the lawsuit filed by Pollack, 10 of the 26 pages are about Peterson, who was the armed school resource officer when the incident happened. The lawsuit accused Peterson of locking down the school at the time of the shooting, thus preventing students and teachers from escaping building 12.

"The pusillanimous Scot Peterson remained safe in his position away from Nikolas Cruz, never once attempting to go inside Building 12, where the school resource officer knew the shooting was taking place, never once attempting to save a life, never once attempting to fire a single bullet at Nikolas Cruz. Scot Peterson waited and listened to the din of screams of teachers and students, many of whom were dead or dying, and the blasts of Nikolas Cruz's repeated gunfire,” the complaint says, CNN reported.

Peterson has still not commented on the lawsuit filed against him but previously, his lawyer, Joseph DiRuzzo III, had clarified that the former did not enter the building as he believed the shooting was taking place outside.

"Let there be no mistake, Mr. Peterson wishes that he could have prevented the untimely passing of the 17 victims on that day, and his heart goes out to the families of the victims in their time of need. However, the allegations that Mr. Peterson was a coward and that his performance, under the circumstances, failed to meet the standards of police officers are patently untrue,” DiRuzzo had said in a statement.

The attorneys of James and Kimberly Snead also responded to the lawsuit and released the following statement.

"As far as the Sneads are concerned, I don't think they're legally, morally or ethically responsible for what Nikolas Cruz did. These folks basically opened their home at the request of their son for a classmate who had lost his mother. They tried to get him some mental health counseling, they insisted that any firearms brought into the home were locked up. He's an adult, he's not their son.
Just because you can sue someone doesn't necessarily mean you should. At the end of the day, these lawsuits may bankrupt the Sneads. They don't have bankruptcy insurance. It's very unfortunate that these folks just tried to help -- he (Cruz) certainly betrayed their trust.
To make them legally responsible, to bankrupt them, is unfair. We'll defend the lawsuit. Theoretically, if everybody whose child died or was injured sued, we're looking at 60-some odd lawsuits coming at them (the Sneads) which is unfortunate. This is a really stretch theory of negligence and duty. They were not acting in the place of a parent, they just offered him a place to stay.”