On Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” Texas Department of Public Safety Spokesman and Lt. Christopher Olivarez acknowledged that best practices call for police to disable an active shooter as soon as they can, but that officers inside the school in Uvalde didn’t know where the shooter was and “if they proceeded any further not knowing where this suspect was at, they could have been shot, they could have been killed, and, at that point, that gunman would have had an opportunity to kill other people inside that school. So, they were able to contain that gunman inside that classroom so that he was not able to go to any other portions of the school to commit any other killings.”
Olivarez stated, “[O]fficers were in that building within minutes. They maintained their presence inside that school. We had multiple officers that responded on the scene within minutes. Two of those officers were shot. They took cover. Because you have to understand this is an active situation, you have an active shooter that is shooting towards law enforcement, as well as the children, the students, the teachers that are inside that school. But those officers maintained cover. They did not flee from that school. They were inside that school while they were being shot at. So, that’s one thing I need to stress and clarify to the viewers and to everyone else out there, that those officers were on-scene. Also, in addition to that, other officers arrived and they were able to evacuate other children as well and teachers. We have to understand, too, that there [were] multiple, numerous — it was a full school. I mean, they were trying to evacuate as many people as possible. Because in an active shooter situation, your focus is to stop the killing and to preserve life. At that point, they had the suspect contained inside the classroom. If those officers weren’t there, if they did not maintain their presence, there is a good chance that gunman could have made it to other classrooms and [committed] more killings.”
Host Wolf Blitzer then asked if it was “a mistake” for officers “to wait for this second tactical team to arrive before fully pushing into that school and neutralizing the gunman?”
Olivarez answered, “So, what we do know, Wolf, is that there [were] multiple officers that arrived on-scene. There [were] three officers that arrived, they made entry at one of the entrances where the gunman actually made entrance to. We had other — another four officers that had made entry at the other entrance of the school. So, there [were] officers inside that school. As they were taking gunfire, they were also calling in for reinforcement, backup, tactical teams, snipers, any additional personnel that could arrive to assist to not only to — with the situation, but also to assist in evacuating students and teachers. At that time, that’s when a U.S. Border Patrol tactical officer arrived, also with a…sheriff’s deputy, as well as two additional Uvalde Police Department officers were able to go into that classroom with a ballistic shield as cover. And of course, we know that one of those officers, an agent, actually, was shot, was grazed on the top of the head. But they were able to shoot and kill the suspect and preserve any other life. We know that there [were] other injured children inside that classroom that they were able to save as well and get them to cover. And at that point, it became a recovery process, a rescue operation, trying to rescue the injured and also any other potential children or teachers that were inside those classrooms.”
Blitzer then asked, “But don’t current best practices, Lt., call for officers to disable a shooter as quickly as possible, regardless of how many officers are actually on-site?”
Olivarez responded, “Correct. [In an] active shooter situation, you want to stop the killing, you want to preserve life, but also, one thing that — of course, the American people need to understand is that officers are making entry into this building. They do not know where the gunman is. They are hearing gunshots. They are receiving gunshots. At that point, if they proceeded any further not knowing where this suspect was at, they could have been shot, they could have been killed, and, at that point, that gunman would have had an opportunity to kill other people inside that school. So, they were able to contain that gunman inside that classroom so that he was not able to go to any other portions of the school to commit any other killings.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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