I have since read that at least two of the children in that class were able to escape. One has been identified.
And as for the controversy about police officers not storming the school? Most of us aren’t cops, and we weren’t there. They may have feared creating more casualties, among other things.
I read that one girl smeared herself with blood and played dead. Another who is alive was shot in the back. I do think he thought he had killed most of the kids in that room.
I just hope that the rumors are not true that some police officers went in, rescued their own children then left again. So far I see no hard evidence that this happened but Snopes cannot say either way.
Things aren’t sounding so hopeful this morning, the narrative is changing. I found this to be a good rundown to date.
The little girl was interviewed, she was in the first room the shooter entered. She described him shooting her teacher and friends. She was hit with shrapnel in the head and shoulders. The shooter then went into the next room. She got the teacher’s cell phone, called 911, smeared her friend’s blood her and played dead.
A few in the room were able to play dead and survived.
Listening to live news conference from state police- The door in question was propped open by a teacher, so he didn’t have to try a bunch of doors. He just had to go straight to the open door.
This news conference is terrible.
He is saying the police screwed up royally.
For those interested who didn’t see it live (49min):
Yeah. It’s powerful and painful.
There are 18 minutes missing from the tapes law enforcement supplied to the media. This is leading to all sorts of speculation and questions.
I hope that the FBI does take over the investigation. I believe impartial parties would best serve this situation.
The police royally fucked up. They were treating the situation as a barricaded suspect so they thought they had time to wait for the tactical teams and negotiators to arrive, in fact it was still an active shooter situation that needed an immediate response because the guy was still shooting people.
The responses to an active shooter situation and a barricaded suspect situation are different and they chose poorly.
LOL! Agreed. I watched the whole thing. At least he admitted it was a stupid move. There goes the dopey “arm everyone” idea right out the window.
Thanks for the link/video!!
The 10 year olds exercise more mobility and better judgement than the police.
It all depends on when the last shots were heard. They should have had some assessment of who was left in the classrooms and whether or not they were in danger. The location of the shooter and anybody in direct danger would be the first thing to establish in order to form a plan of action.
My initial desire is probably shared by many and that would be to go in guns blazing but that is the stuff of movie legend and not reality. If you remember the concert shooting (from the hotel) the sniper had the hallway under surveillance and was waiting to ambush the police.
I think it depends more on when the first shots were heard. Or when 911 was first called.
That teacher, I can’t imagine what they are going through.
Got a link? I can’t find anything about this.
Even if he wasn’t actively shooting people, you would think they’d still go in on the assumption that there are mass casualties within, some of them will need immediate medical attention, and any delay could lead to more deaths as very small bodies succumb to wounds that would put a grown man down.
It’s like the police stood around, dickering over whether or not they needed a negotiator, or a SWAT team.
And then it’s like Border Patrol shows up and says, “Get out of the way,” as they storm into the classroom.
This is my interpretation of events.
I saw Al Sharpton there. Has Ben Crump showed up yet?
~VOW
After a half hour. Based on one timeline I just checked the BP arrived at 12:15, but didn’t breach the room (with a key) until 12:50. Sounds like they didn’t push anyone aside, but rather followed the lead of the officers already on the scene.
I’m kinda gimpy and I don’t bend very well anymore. I’ve seen pics of the school and heard that some LE did finally enter through windows. I’m pretty sure I could have gimped and peeked my way all the way around that school a couple of times in an hour. Why did the healthy young LE folks not think about the windows? Even if the windows were bullet proof (which they weren’t), looking in the windows could have possibly given them clues as to where the shooter was.