In my department, we have trained for this often, during times when the schools are unoccupied. The message is very clear...go to the sound of the gunfire as fast as possible and eliminate the threat. Don't wait! Time is critical. I'm appalled by what happened in Florida. It would be much easier to give my life in defense of those kids, than to look at myself in the mirror and know that I failed those who counted on me.
Reminds me of the street cops that took out the UT Sniper, Charles Whitman.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-charles-whitman/?utm_term=.3d0941ee5452 Houston McCoy grew up in West Texas. Men don’t brag much there. Or cry.
But there he was, his life winding down, with tears in his eyes.
It was 2008. McCoy, one of the Austin police officers who killed University of Texas Tower sniper Charles Whitman on Aug. 1 1966, was being interviewed on video by Mary Ellen O’Toole, an FBI agent who specialized in school shootings.
McCoy went through life not talking much about the day Whitman killed 17 people and wounded more than 30. Now he was telling the whole story.
What training did he have to take down a mass shooter?
“The training was, you’re a policeman,” McCoy says, in a raspy twang. “You’re required to enforce all federal and state laws and city ordinances and keep the peace and that was our sworn oath.”
He pauses.
“But no, we didn’t have any training for anything like that. Nobody had even thought about anything like that ever happening.” He was 26 — one year older than the gunman.
When he went out on the observation deck to confront Whitman, was he wearing a bulletproof vest?
“No,” he says. “I’d never heard of one.”
Was there a plan?
“There was no plan,” he says.
