Add into consideration a report I read this afternoon (after my posting to you) saying that all the deaths (19 children + 2 adults) occurred in the same classroom. I suspect that all the wounding occurred there (or near there) as well. I also suspect that, when full details are released, the classroom will be near the exterior entry point and that the total timeline will be pretty short (time of entry until shooter was killed by LE).
Assuming those are essentially the facts of the event, how do you defend against that? A zero casualties policy establishes the requirement for a nearly unbreachable perimeter with armed teachers backing it up. That’s beyond reasonable in resources to implement and not a healthy environment for students, teachers, or staff.
You defeat the attack by preemptively defeating the attacker.
"He says the shooter shot his grandmother in the face, and then drove away. She then called the police.
Soon after, the gunman crashed his car and ran into the school. Officers engaged with the gunman at that time, he went in through a backdoor, through two short hallways and into a classroom on the left hand side.
The classroom was connected internally to another classroom. Officers converged on the classroom and a border control officer killed the gunman, Abbott says.
Sadly this seems like another example of the police on the scene failing to act decisively. According to a report from CBS published by the BBC, police engaged in a gunfight with the shooter before he entered the school, but did not continue to try to stop him. Reportedly he was in the school for about 1 hour, killing the children, before the Border Patrol team arrived and entered the school to stop the killing.
Why the police on the scene did not have the courage to enter the building is hard to understand for me.
"According to CBS News, Ramos' grandmother, who is in a critical condition, was only discovered after the shooting when officers arrived at her home to investigate.SourceAfter driving erratically across town Ramos eventually crashed his car into a ditch near Robb Elementary School at around 11:30am, police said. Some bystanders approached the car to offer assistance.
"People thought that he was in trouble and so they jumped out to help him and he came out of his vehicle and started shooting at them," one person told the Spanish language network Telemundo.
A police officer who works at the school and then two officers from the Uvalde police department all fired at Ramos - but they could not stop him and instead called for back-up, Eric Estrada from the Texas department of public safety told CNN.
Video shared on social media showed a person clad in black jogging toward a side door of the school carrying what appeared to be a rifle.
Texas Department of Public Safety spokesperson Chris Olivarez told CNN that Ramos then forced his way into a fourth-grade classroom.
As police arrived at the scene, Ramos barricaded himself in the classroom and prepared for a showdown with law enforcement officials.
It was there that children were "shot and killed horrifically, incomprehensibly", according to Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
All 21 victims of the shooting were later found in the room.
The gunman was in the school for roughly one hour, police said."
Sadly that doesn't seem to be the case. It has been reported that some police on the scene exchanged gunfire with the shooter, but then decided not to enter the school until they had backup. Reportedly they waited outside for an hour while the shooter was killing the kids.
The officers outside did break some windows and try to help people escape, but you would think they would try harder than that.