You've got to realize that this is a small town (Newtown) with a 4-man police force. Little crime here. They probably rarely use their guns. This is a small and wealthy suburb north of Philadelphia. They just lost half of their force in this incident (one dead, one wounded). And it happened at a Catholic hospital which is one of the safest in the area.
"This is a small and wealthy suburb north of Philadelphia."
Interesting that you say that. I went to Villanova and I was surprised at how little cross-over crime there was in the Philly suburbs/Main Line committed by Philly hoods. They seemed to play in their own yards. No such luck in suburban Boston.