Saturday, April 04, 2009

The New York Killing

I'm sure you've heard by now of the active shooter in New York. Yeah, the guy put his car against the back door of an civic association, then went inside and opened fire on folks taking an immigration class.
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. – A gunman barricaded the back door of a community center with his car and then opened fire on a room full of immigrants taking a citizenship class Friday, killing 13 people before apparently committing suicide, officials said.
Yeah, that shooting.

Police said they arrived within two minutes, but
Police heard no gunfire after they arrived but waited for about an hour before entering the building to make sure it was safe for officers. They then spent two hours searching the building.
What? They waited an hour?

That's the damndest thing I ever heard.

If there is one thing I know about, it's active shooter situations. They're my bread and butter, my reason for a paycheck. They're what I study and what I pray I never have to fight through.

The job of the police in an active shooter situation is to go immediately to the sound of the gunfire and place pressure on the shooter. Change his focus from the innocents to the police. The vast majority of active shooters will commit suicide at that point. But, the primary lesson for police officers is: Don't Wait. You go. Go put fire on the shooter. If, when you've arrived, you hear no gunfire, you go anyway. Start clearing rooms, start getting victims out. Other police will arrive shortly and you'll be glad for the help, but don't wait for them. Go.

Once the gunman is isolated, captured, or killed, the focus changes to the victims. Get EMS in as quickly as possible. Start stacking ambulances and emergency personnel around the building and get the survivors out.

Waiting five minutes is unconscionable. Waiting for an hour is cowardice.

3 comments:

J said...

People bled to death due to the cowardice of the Binghamton police. They should suffer the full legal consequences.

Anonymous said...

In contrast, when Officer Justin Garner responded to a 911 call from the Pinelake nursing home in Carthage, NC, he did not wait for backup. He went straight in, confronted and shot Robert Stewart who had already killed 8 people. I wonder how many more people would have died if the Carthage police had waited until the shooting stopped.

Windy Wilson said...

If you wait until the shooting stops, you aren't police, you are graves registration.
And you don't get the "big bucks".