It looks to me as if people on the scene used the contact with the shooter (phone contact) as a way to delay and minimize risk to the responders.
They did not know how many were wounded and bleeding out in the bathroom, at least at first, but there are reports of cell phone messages getting out.
They did know, early on, that this was a jihadi attack. Of course, political correctness, from the President down, has made it policy, for years, to not accept an attack as an Islamic one, unless there is a paid up membership card, verified, on the attackers person at the time of the attack.
We know jihadi attacks are deadly, and they need to be disrupted quickly.
What we do not know, is if any shots were fired after the initial police responders were told to wait for SWAT. I suspect there were. But going up against a barracaded homicidal jihadi with hostages is a lot to ask.
A serious question is: Why did the officers at the scene hesitate and call to HQ to ask if they should proceed? It sounds as if they were hoping for orders to wait.
“wait” ??? What crap. There were over 300 in that gay bar!! 300!! Wait? Were they waiting for a sign? “ SHOTS FIRES” . You get paid to kill people. GO DO IT!! Gawd ,what a bunch on sniveling cowards .
They were told that if they do anything he had explosives in a vehicle he can detonate. I believe the initial officers drove the guy into the bathroom and that enabled people to escape out of the exits in the main part of the bldg..