According to the reports, their 'plan' was to get Scott to file out with the rest of the customers, to not alert him to the 'situation'. Apparently, surprising him with THREE POINTED GUNS in the midst of a crowd of COSTCO customers (who were also confused), was supposed to be a smart way to deal with the situation, instead of just walking up and explaining the situation.
Even though they had been there in the parking lot for 30 minutes preparing, they now claim they WEREN'T READY when Scott came out.
Of course, they already had their guns DRAWN BEFORE he came out, according to testimony and eyewitnesses. That was in case they had to SHOOT HIM before their superiors could show up and take command of the situation. Because they WEREN'T READY YET. Again, that was in the testimony of the officer.
This should be considered as proof of guilt (poorly prepared and used bad judgment), as it implies that had their 'superiors' gotten there, Mr. Scott would be alive.
These cops belong in jail.
Several weeks ago, a scanner's transcript of the police radio traffic was posted here at FR. You can listen to the copy entered into evidence and posted on the Sun website and decide for yourself how accurate it is.
http://209.157.64.201/focus/f-news/2556714/posts
In any event, that radio traffic does not support your contention that units had been in the parking lot for 30 minutes: you can clearly hear the supervisors in unit 767 directing units to set up a command post and contain the entrances. 2V54 is the first unit to arrive at timestamp 12:07; he is ordered to stop foot traffic in and out of the buisiness, then to contact store security to start evacuations at 14:04. (that's about two minutes after he first arrived at the Costco). 2V16 arrives a minute later, at 14:55.
There is additional traffic between the units arriving at the store, the helicopter, and the supervisors: staging fire, the sergeant ordering units to turn off their lights and sirens prior to arrival to avoid further agitating the suspect, setting up a containment. Dispatch confirms that she is still "landline" with the store manager, and updates the location of the suspect, "is directly in the center of the building", at 18:14.
Adding it up, units had been on scene for six minutes so far. One minute later, at 19:11 2V16 advises "shots fired".
That's less than one minute after being told the suspect was in the center of the store talking to the manager, Seven minutes after the first unit arrived (not 30 minutes), and four minutes after 2V16 arrived.
That timeline is consistent with trying to secure the scene, evacuate the uninvolved and wait, as ordered, for the supervisors to arrive.