Today a stunning report was released by the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) Center. This training facility, at Texas State University, was engaged to evaluate law enforcement response to the Uvalde shooting that killed 19 elementary school children and two teachers. You can download the report HERE.
The report details a shocking series of errors and system failures that contributed to this tragedy, many by police, but not exclusively. The conclusion is that this horrific event was preventable, and even when beyond completely preventable, could have been greatly mitigated to save some of the lives lost.
I will review the highlights. They will likely make you sad, but they should also anger and frustrate you. I can’t imagine what the parents of these kids are feeling, knowing their children did not have to die.
The Set Up: A teacher props a door open with a rock (that the shooter will later enter). While wrong this does not contribute to the incident (see below). The shooter (who does not know how to drive) crashes his parents pickup truck into a dry canal about 150 yards from the school. When nearby citizens go to assist he shoots at them (they safely flee). This shooting is what initially alerts law enforcement. The time is 11:29.
System Failure 1, The Rock & The Lock: Equally important the gunfire is heard in the school which immediately issues lockdown orders. Barely 30 seconds after shots ring out, the teacher who propped the door open with a rock opens the door, kicks the rock away, and very deliberately closes the door. However, she did not test to confirm it locked. It didn’t. It should have been set to automatically lock and was not. The teacher apparently believed it was locked, as reflected by her propping it with a rock to begin with. In any event, the teacher did not have what was needed to lock the door even if she knew it was not locked.
System Failure 2, Failing To Take The Shot: The shooter moves towards the school, climbing a fence to do so. Police begin to arrive, knowing they are responding to reports of an active shooter. One drives through the school parking lot at a high rate of speed but does not see the shooter. The other arrives at the shooter’s crash site. He hears gun shots, these are the shooter firing into classroom windows as the shooter approaches the West entrance.
This officer, at the crash site, knows he is responding to an active shooter report, sees the shooter, with a rifle, firing into the classroom windows. This “officer was armed with a rifle and sighted in to shoot the attacker.” Knowing that he is responding to an active shooter report, seeing this man with a rifle firing into the school, even in these circumstances the officer did not shoot. Instead he called back to the office to ask for permission to shoot. While he awaited an answer the shooter entered the school. “The officer was justified in using deadly force to stop the attacker,” is the conclusion of the report, not me. It’s my conclusion that the word “immediately” in the Texas defense of others statute to justify deadly force means one can do so without going through a damn bureaucracy. If he does shoot, even if he misses, the shooter likely takes cover, never enters the school, and 19 children and two teachers don’t die.
System Failure 3, Another Door That Doesn’t Lock: As indicated the school had initiated lockdown procedures. Students were hurriedly shepherded into classrooms whose doors were locked. For reasons still not known, the door to Room 111 (see map above) was not locked and shooter gained access to that classroom through it. There are some unconfirmed reports the lock of that door was the subject of maintenance requests. After entering the room, over the next roughly 2 1/2 minutes audio signatures indicate the shooter fires over 100 rounds. The same audio records the screaming of children. Once in Room 111 the shooter can access Room 112 through a common door.
System Failure 4, Rescue Mission Aborted/Loss of Momentum: But the good news is the cavalry in blue in on the way, and they actually moved quick. Even as the above round of shooting is in progress a total of seven officers enter the building and move quickly towards Room 111 and 112. “As the officers entered the threshold of rooms 111 and 112, they were fired upon by the suspect,” and . . . they retreated. For the record they had body armor, and some were armed with rifles. In the words of the report, “victims in the classrooms had none of these things.” The report acknowledges that pressing the attack on the classroom at that time would have placed the officers at significant risk. In the words of the report:
“Responding to an active shooter is a dangerous task. There is a chance that officers will be shot, injured, or even killed while responding. This is something that every officer should be acutely aware of when they become a law enforcement officer.”
System Failure #5, Over One Hour Of Police Dithering: The time of the aforementioned retreat and loss of momentum was 11:37. It was not until 12:50, one hour and 13 minutes later, that police breached the (what turned out to be) unlocked door and killed the shooter. Over that one hour and 13 minutes a lot happened, but none of it saved lives, or even tried to save lives. More equipment poured in that included rifles, breaching equipment and ballistic shields. More shots were fired from within Rooms 111 and 112. From within those rooms children called on cell phones begging for help from the trained “professionals” that senselessly still did not come until it was too late. Parents, who had the courage the police lacked, were detained and handcuffed by cowards hiding behind corners while children pleaded for help.
Failed locks and lack of equipment do nothing to explain the cravenness of those sworn to protect and who chose not to.
