PrairieWind
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I have some questions. I hadn't heard that some thought this was a drug trafficker. Nor that they thought that the students were at lunch. If so, both point to poor training. The video shows officers with rifles there pretty quickly. Most officers are equipped with them. Why these officers didn't have ballistics vests is another question.Thank you! I finally watched the documentary on PBS last night.
Inside the Uvalde Response | FRONTLINE
Watch FRONTLINE, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune's documentary reconstructing the chaotic response to the Uvalde school shooting and examining the missteps and lessons learned.www.pbs.org
States Require Students to Prepare for Active Shooters More Often Than Officers. In Uvalde, It Showed. | FRONTLINE
Across the country, states require more training to prepare students and teachers for mass shootings than for those expected to protect them. The differences were clear in Uvalde, where children and officers waited on opposite sides of the door.www.pbs.org
I'm in San Antonio, not too far away.
For a small town, Uvalde has lot of police officers.
They assist border patrol and are often engaged in high speed chases etc.
However, I'm sure they thought a mass shooting, "could not happen here".
However, I'm surprised Uvalde PD didn't have their own SWAT team or didn't assemble a SWAT team.
- When Uvalde CISD Police Chief (PA) gets to the scene, he doesn't have his radio
- Both Uvalde PD and Uvalde CISD Officers respond.
- Radios don't work inside the building (My comment: This is likely due to the way the emergency radio system was set up about 20 years prior. The Uvalde area is set up for outdoor transmission. Poor Police Radio Reception Caused Confusion in Texas School Shooting Response, Says Official )
- Some of the first to respond are shot at and they retreat.
- They know the subject has an AR-15
- In interviews with officers, many think it is someone trafficking drugs who is hiding and not a school shooter
- They don't have the safety equipment to approach a subject with an AR-15. (Uvalde PD appear to be armed with only handguns. Only one officer appears to have a vest. They don't have helmets etc)
- It's real quiet, some think maybe the students are at lunch. (I don't think there was any consensus on what was going on with the students because they don't have an incident commander. )
- Communication between the officers on the scene is not good because Uvalde CISD Chief doesn't have his radio and because radio transmission is poor in the school.
- Uvalde PD radios dispatch, that they have a barricaded subject.
- Around this time in real life, I'm following it on a local MSM network affiliate and I'm reading that there is a barricaded subject at a school and it sounds like it's under control. I thought maybe he was in area where students were not present.
In MOO: Based on interviews, Uvalde CISD Police Chief, (PA) really seems to be bumbling.
- As more LEO arrive, they eventually realize they don't have an incident commander.
- No one is in charge.
- An Uvalde CISD officer arrives and says his wife is shot in the classroom
- A student calls 911
- They are also looking for a room key. (MOO and known from my HS principal hubby: School safety officers should carry room keys.)
- Border Patrol SWAT team arrives with bullet proof vests, helmets, shields and rifles.
- Communication is hampered between local LE and Border Patrol.
- They still can't get in the class because they don't have a key
- Somehow they obtain a key and breach the room
Also I didn't see much of Texas DPS in the documentary. 91 Texas state troopers responded to the Uvalde massacre. Their bosses have deflected scrutiny and blame.
A small town is going to have a higher number of officers per capita than a city, just because of the numbers. Small towns typically don't have their own SWAT teams but instead coordinate and cooperate in agreements with County and State agencies for those capabilities.
I have spent a good portion of my life living in small towns, smaller than Uvalde. And their officers seem better trained and equipped than these guys. Why? It has been years since I have seen a patrol officer without a ballistic vest, or a patrol car without an AR.
I don't think the failure of Uvalde CISD can be overstated. It not only failed on the day of the shooting, it failed in the days, weeks, months, years ahead. Did they not know they had communication issues? Did they not know they didn't have keys? Did they not know building schedules? Chief Arradondo seems to have been just collecting a paycheck and was doing less than the bare minimum with his time. I blame him, I blame the school board for allowing it.