Parkland security man's hesitation

The Parkland security man Deputy Scot Peterson is being villified for his failure to leap with his gun in his hand into the slaughterhouse to confront and kill the accused shooter Nikolas Cruz. The media is going crazy after the local sheriff declared at a press conference that Deputy Peterson had waited outside for four minutes as gunfire raged inside the school. Seventeen people were killed and others injured in a six-minute hail of bullets. But wait just a minute before this poor man is crucified. He had a responsibiity to protect the students. That was his job. That was why he was armed. But not every police officer, security officer and soldier is naturally equipped mentally to rush into a war zone-type situation, separate the gunman from the students at risk and calmly shoot him dead. It would have taken instinctive courage, unbelievable determination, immaculate training and incredible skill. Citations for a top bravery award given to a soldier in combat always say that the awardee took action "without thought for his own safety". Perhaps Deputy Peterson did not have that kind of courage. Probably he had never been trained for dealing with such a horrendous life-risking situation. Perhaps he really didn't know what to do. Should he have gone in immediately the first shot was fired and run straight at the gunman? Would he have killed him or would he have fired out of fear and killed one of the students or teachers? Then what would have been said? It was one security officer armed with a pistol against a crazy gunman armed with a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle that can spray deadly rounds almost without stopping. Sheriff Scott Israel at the press conference was merciless: "I am devastated, sick to my stomach, he never went in." He should have "went in, addressed the killer, killed the killer." Would the sheriff have done that had he been the lone security officer facing a man with an assault rifle? All I'm saying is, Deputy Peterson should have rushed in and should have been prepared to sacrifice his life, but the sheer terror of doing precisely that, knowing that he could be dead in a matter of seconds, made him hesitate. No one who has not faced this sort of life and death decision should criticise him. Normally when there is a dangerous hostage situation or a bank robbery or whatever, a lone police officer at the scene would be told to wait for back-up. I have no idea but maybe Deputy Peterson judged it would be suicidal to go in on his own and he was waiting for more armed police to arrive. In the end no one can know whether his intervention would have saved lives or just added one more to the death toll - the death of Deputy Peterson.