A man entered a high school with two handguns yesterday in Tennessee. The school resource officer (a police officer assigned to the school, I believe) intervened, allowing the school principal to escape harm, and held the man at bay - the man and officer apparently in a standoff, both with guns pointed, just feet from each other inside the school. Backup police officers arrived very quickly, and approached the man from different angles. Multiple shots were fired and the suspect was hit and later died at the hospital. No one else was physically injured.
Not enough kudos to go around for this SRO. What an amazingly brave and thoroughly professional response
Not a bad write up from this local news station either. The video in link below is a bit old and outdated, first report type of information. But the written report below is very thorough, unbiased, step-by-step recount of what apparently happened with a lot of eyewitness accounts from students - who were kept in their rooms on lockdown. As the school superintendent said, this was the "perfect" response to this situation - everything ran like clockwork exactly like you hope it would in any school these days.
The resource officer was brave to shield the principal.
Also: She made a big mistake in not shooting the intruder as soon as she had her gun out. She got lucky in the outcome -- he didn't shoot anyone else, especially her -- but I think it poor judgement for her not to put him down ASAP. Maybe there were people in the background etc etc but does not sound like it.
The school was very very lucky that the only "authorized" gun happened to be at that particular door when the intruder showed up.
Last edited by ELB on Tue Aug 31, 2010 2:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
definitely agree with your second point - extremely lucky that the officer was in the right place at the right time.
On the first point, it's a bit difficult to decipher exactly what happened and when she may or may not have missed an opportunity to take him out earlier. I wasn't there and don't know all the circumstances, thus I won't pass judgment on her actions (or lack of). She stood between another human being and a gun. That's enough for me to tip my hat to her.
To hazzard a guess, from the description when he first pulled his gun he aimed it at the principal, she pulled hers and had she shot him then and there, perhaps there was a danger he gets off a round at close range toward the principal? She positions herself between his gun and principal, allowing principal to escape. She then apparently leads him further inside school to "corral" him in a confined space apparently. At this point, you have a true standoff two people two guns pointed at each other. Who flinches first? Would YOU fire in that situation? I'm sure there are tactical methods of doing this, but it also seems she - and even the other two officers who showed up on scene in record time - were trying very hard to give this man an out, let him put his weapon down, before resorting to shooting him.
Tough call, not enough facts (even though there appear to be more facts in this account than you typically get from a media story.
Just think of the thousands of schools in this country who do not have police officers in them? Letting school employees carry would do a lot to keep the schools safer.
The teachers and student must have been terrified! Every day they must pass through metal detectors and be buzzed into school, have to get notes accounting for every move they make, parents are rarely allowed into their children's classrooms for fear of their intent because who knows which of them is a pedophile (though teachers have a high percentage of pedophiles among them due to the profession's proximity to children and the systemic administrative cover-up that just moves them around from place to place), and then some guy comes in and holds a gun on their principal.
They can hear the shuffling and gunshots and all they can do is huddle in a corner or put their heads on their desks and pray the shooter doesn't choose their blacked-out room because if he does, they're goners. How much safer would those students have felt if their respected science teacher stood facing the door at low ready, willing to protect them the way the officer was protecting the principal? I bet they would have had lasting appreciation and respect for such a teacher, not fear. It would make a big difference in how the event affected them.
As it stands, this textbook response is going to continue to terrify faculty, staff, and students for many years to come as they feel helpless, defenseless, vulnerable, and scared. It's not what I'd wish on my kids.
Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you. -St. Augustine We are reformers in Spring and Summer; in Autumn and Winter we stand by the old; reformers in the morning, conservers at night. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
