Disgraced Florida Deputy Would Enter School In 'Heartbeat'

NEW YORK, NY — Disgraced Parkland school resource officer Scot Peterson said he would not hesitate to enter Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School if he could relive the Valentine's Day massacre that forever changed the Parkland community. Peterson spoke to the "Today" show's Savannah Guthrie in his first interview since the tragedy. The interview will air over two segments on Tuesday and Wednesday between 7 and 9 a.m. eastern.

"Would you acknowledge now that you know in this really important moment, you missed it," Guthrie pressed Peterson.

"I have to. I live with that," responded Peterson, who promptly retired when he was informed that he was being suspended without pay for his actions related to the horrific shooting in which 17 students and faculty members were killed.

In a previous statement through Fort Lauderdale Attorney Joseph A. DiRuzzo, III, Peterson maintained that his actions were "appropriate under the circumstances."

The father of an 18-year-old Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student who was killed during the Parkland school massacre filed a 26-page lawsuit against the accused gunman and Peterson for failing to confront him. Andrew Pollack branded Peterson "pusillanimous" and a "coward" for failing to try to save his daughter, Meadow, who died while trying to shield another student after she herself had been shot four times.

"I filed a wrongful death suit against Deputy Peterson today," Andrew Pollack said after filing the suit. "I want to expose that coward so bad. Wherever he goes, I want people to recognize him and say that's one of the cowards of Broward. The SRO that let those children and teachers die on the third floor."

In his NBC interview, Peterson referred to the Stoneman Douglas students as "my kids" and said in a perfect world he would have entered the school as the gunman systematically moved from floor to floor executing students and faculty.

"At the point, if I would have known — I mean knowing what I know today — I would have been in that building in a heartbeat," he countered. "I mean, like I said, it was my kids. I mean, I didn't know. I wracked my brain. I go, 'Why?’"

In a separate interview with The Washington Post, Peterson said Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel gave him a choice of facing an indefinite suspension without pay or retiring with an annual pension of nearly $100,000.

He chose to retire, but still questions why he was accused of doing nothing.

"How can they keep saying I did nothing?” Peterson was quoted as saying in The Washington Post article. “I’m getting on the radio to call in the shooting. I’m locking down the school. I’m clearing kids out of the courtyard. They have the video and the call logs. The evidence is sitting right there.”

No one told Peterson there was a shooter loose on campus, according to the former deputy.

"So your dispatcher, nobody's giving you any information," Guthrie asked.

"No intel. No real time intelligence whatsoever," Peterson replied. "Inside the building or — even at the school, exactly."

Watch video of Scot Peterson's actions courtesy the Broward Sheriff's Office:

Watch a preview of the "Today" show interview beliew:

Video and image courtesy NBC News "Today"