In CNN’s Situation Room on Thursday, Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman and Lieutenant Christopher Olivares agreed that best practice is to ask police to remove the active attacker as soon as possible, but Uvalda school officials did not. He knew where the shooter was and “if they continued without knowing where the suspect was they might have been shot, they might have been killed, at that point there was a chance to kill other people in that school. So they stopped this shooting inside the classroom so he wouldn’t go to another part of the school to commit another murder. ”
Olivares said:[O]The officers were in this building for minutes. They continued their existence in this school. Within minutes, several police officers arrived on the scene. Two of these officers were shot. They’re hiding. You have an active shooter to shoot at law enforcement as you need to understand that this is an active situation, there are also children, students, teachers inside this school. But these officers hid a cover. They did not run away from this school. They were at this school when they were shot. So there’s something I need to highlight and make clear to the audience and everyone else that these officers were on the scene. Also, other officers arrived and were able to evacuate other children and teachers. We must also understand that [were] very, very – a whole school. That is, they are trying to evacuate as many people as possible. Given an active shooter scenario, your goal is to stop the killing and save lives. The suspect was in the classroom at the time. Without these officers, if they don’t maintain their presence, the shooter is likely to go and go to other classes. [committed] more carnage. ”
Bullet Wolf Blitzer later asked whether it was a “mistake” for officers to “wait for this second tactical group to arrive before they fully entered this school and neutralized the shooter.
Olivares replied: “We know that Wolf, there [were] Many officers came to the scene. there [were] Three officers who arrived entered one of the entrances, actually a man with a gun. We have four more officers entering another entrance of the school. that’s it [were] officers in this school. Under fire they also called for reinforcements, trenches, tactical teams, snipers, and any additional personnel who could come not only to assist the situation, but also to assist in the evacuation of students and teachers. At that time, a tactical officer from the US Border Patrol arrived, as well as a deputy sheriff and two other police department officers Uvalde entered this class with a ballistic shield as cover. And of course, we know that one of these officers, an agent, got shot, the top of his head itchy. But they were able to shoot the suspect and save any life. We know what’s out there [were] they were also able to save and cover up other injured children in that class. And at that point, there was a recovery process, a rescue operation, trying to save the injured, and other potential children or teachers in the classrooms. ”
Blitzer later asked, “But isn’t current best practice, lieutenant, to require officers to catch the shooter as soon as possible, no matter how many police officers are actually at the scene?”
Olivares replied: “Correct. [In an] It’s the case of the active hitman, you want to stop the killings, you want to save lives, but of course the Americans have to understand something: Officers are infiltrating this building. They don’t know where to shoot. They heard gunshots. They were shot. At this point if they move forward without knowing where this suspect is, they can be shot, they can be killed, at which point this gunman had a chance to kill someone else at that school. So they stopped this shooting inside the classroom so he wouldn’t go to another part of the school to commit another murder. ”
Source: Breitbart
