[Thud]

Friendly fire was unavoidable during the first few minutes when officers were running into the nightclub under fire, and returning fire, while it was still crowded with screaming patrons. It was also unavoidable in the final rescue episode.

Criticism of the OPD for not being perfect during those two periods shows ignorance of the mechanics of firefights in such awful situations, and is very unfair to the officers during their duty.

Where the OPD really needs to be called out is for failure to engage once the SWAT team had deployed with the Bearcat. That let the perp roam around murdering victims who hadn't gotten out yet.

That was a command failure, and very indicative of a senior officer afraid to make a decision. Blame him, not the patrolmen and sergeants.

[Lorianne]

I agree. There is no way to know how many were saved by the response.