Quote (Goomshill @ May 28 2022 07:56am)
I think it really exemplifies the worst kind of armchair quarterbacking. In wars, hostage standoffs, counterterrorism, etc, armed forces have to make decisions in the fog of war and act decisively. They don't have the benefit of hindsight. The commander on the scene had to make his call based on the information available, and it certainly indicated a barricaded suspect scenario. Even with the details we have right now, its unclear if trying to breach the gunman's position at the earliest point available would have actually saved any more lives, but its very clear it could have easily cost them. The reports were hundreds of rounds fired as he killed children inside the classroom, followed by sporadic gunfire at the officers responding to the scene, wounding two and grazing one. And he was behind a locked steel door. It was logical at that point to figure it was a barricade scenario. Apparently any reports of whether children were still in the classroom on calls to 911- and not in other classrooms outside the line of fire- weren't reported to the chief. So they could try to guess whether potential victims remained alive or wounded inside. But even then, that would dictate a hostage scenario, same response as the barricade scenario. The police training was to charge in guns blazing against active shooter scenarios, where they continue to hear gunshots of someone killing innocent people, which didn't appear to be the case. Then when officers did eventually breach the room, they had to get past a steel door with a key and the gunman was lying in wait to ambush them as they came in.
So for a few factors apparent to them;
>The agent saw bullet holes in the classroom door, and police told the agent that the suspect had attempted to shoot at them through the opening.
and
>The agent said he did not hear shots fired inside the classroom during the period the officers sent for the key to unlock the classroom. Once they had the key, there were able to open the door while standing off to the side, shielded by the outer wall of the classroom. “Within minutes of getting the key, they made their entry,” the official said.
and
>They unlocked the door and went in behind the BORTAC agent holding the shield. Two other BORTAC agents, a Border Patrol Search, Trauma and Rescue (BORSTAR) agent and at least one sheriff’s deputy followed. Ramos came out of a closet firing at them, and they returned fire, the official said, killing him.
>One of the BORTAC agents was grazed on the head and took some shrapnel in the foot, but wounds were minor.
>The agents saw children piled up around the room, huddled together, some still alive but many dead, the official said.
I think its fair to say based on the evidence that the distinction between "active shooter", "barricaded suspect" and "hostage taker" is extremely unclear in this case even now with the benefit of so much hindsight and forensic analysis
So when we look at the actions of officers on the scene in the middle of the chaos, its absolutely demented to armchair quarterback their decision making
We can't even say right now for certain what the right call was. The gunman had an hour to murder everyone, but stopped shooting. The police knew he stopped shooting, but didn't know whether there was still anyone alive inside. They knew he was trying to ambush responding officers. He didn't kill everyone he could have killed, but didn't make any hostage demands. He stopped firing at some point, and clearly barricaded himself behind both a locked door (the police knew about) and a closet (the police didn't know about until they breached). So they chose to treat it as a barricaded suspect scenario, and spent that hour evacuating every other classroom. Whether that was the right or wrong call, it was a call made for logical reasons.
Too many folks are more interested in finding scapegoats and being judgmental, as always.
I mean hell, next up they're going to say the teacher who propped open the door for only a minute is an accomplice to mass murder. That teacher breached security! One minute of a door being propped open was all it took for a madman to commit mass murder. Everyone who props a door open is a monster. Or the people who read his instagram PMs making vague omens about buying a gun and doing something in 10 days and denying it was a school shooting- they should have reported him.
or maybe, just maybe, the person who deserves 100% of the blame is Salvador Ramos. Just a crazy thought
Is the director of public safety of Texas arm-chair quarterbacking by saying the Uvaldi PD made the wrong decision to not go in?