DECATUR — While critics second-guess the police response to the Texas elementary school shooting massacre, law enforcement in Decatur and Macon County said their response to a gunman in a school is simple: Go in immediately and neutralize the threat.
“In an active shooter situation, the training and expectation of our officers is to act immediately, whether that is on their own or in teams, in order to neutralize the threat,” said Decatur Police Chief Shane Brandel.
“In an ideal world we will work in small teams to locate and neutralize the threat. However, waiting even seconds can cost lives. So if an individual officer has to work alone, then that is what they will do.”
Brandel said preparing for such tragedies is part of police training, and officers know they risk being hurt or killed as part of their job to protect and serve.
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“We understand and accept the risk we would be taking in such an event, as it means we are putting ourselves in grave danger and may have to sacrifice our own life,” he added.
“Regardless of the level of danger, I am certain that not a single DPD officer would hesitate to run into the danger, work to neutralize the threat, and save innocent lives. It is our duty and our honor to protect this community, and we will do just that.”
There was an identical response from Macon County Sheriff Jim Root, who said training for his officers tells them they must act immediately and never wait. “It can’t wait for everybody to get there,” he added.
“You have got to go in and eliminate the threat. That is kind of the standing rule: Time is of the essence and you’ve got to go in.”
Meanwhile, law enforcement serving the elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, are facing questions and criticism over how much time elapsed before they stormed a school classroom and put a stop to the rampage by a gunman who killed 19 children and two teachers. Investigators have been unable to say with any certainty whether an armed school district security officer outside Robb Elementary exchanged fire with the gunman, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, when he first arrived on Tuesday.
On Friday, it was revealed that children inside the school had begged the police to enter their classroom and save them, frantically calling 911, as a team of 19 officers waited in the corridor for an hour because a commander believed the situation had shifted from active shooter to a barricaded subject, a state law enforcement officer said.
“Of course, it wasn’t the right decision,” Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw said at a news conference, choking back tears. “It was the wrong decision. Period.”
The motive for the massacre — the nation's deadliest school shooting since Newtown, Connecticut, a decade ago — remained under investigation, with authorities saying Ramos had no known criminal or mental health history.
During the siege, which ended when a U.S. Border Patrol team burst in and shot the gunman to death, frustrated onlookers urged police officers to charge into the school, according to witnesses.
"Go in there! Go in there!" women shouted at the officers soon after the attack began, said Juan Carranza, 24, who watched the scene from outside a house across the street.
Javier Cazares, whose fourth grade daughter, Jacklyn Cazares, was killed in the attack, said he raced to the school when he heard about the shooting, arriving while police were still gathered outside.
Upset that police were not moving in, he raised the idea of charging into the school with several other bystanders.
"Let's just rush in because the cops aren't doing anything like they are supposed to," he said. "More could have been done."
"They were unprepared," he added.
Carranza had watched as Ramos crashed his truck into a ditch outside the school, grabbed his AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle and shot at two people outside a funeral home, who ran away uninjured.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.