Also read they were smashing windows to get kids out. Could they not have climbed in those windows?
How did the shooter get in?
I don’t know if the classroom in question had an external wall, but with 20-20 hindsight, even a “dynamic breach” of the door and even an exterior or adjoining wall might have had a better outcome.
That is, blow the door and blow in a wall at the same moment. There are water-damped demo charges that will just create an instant entry through cinderblock and other materials. Of course, the risk is some kids might be hurt/killed during the dynamic breach, but the good side is that even the shooter is going to be stunned senseless while SWAT pours in.
Of course, any harm to kids/teachers will result in lawsuits etc, hence the “caution” and 21 dead.
When one smashes a window, there is noise - the shooter would naturally look in that direction. Put yourself in an individual policeman’s [SIC] shoes: there you stand, exposed, while an armed and demonstrated murderer turns his attention on you. You probably can’t see in as well as he can see out. He has at least some cover while you probably have none.
Who is likely to come out on top of that tactical situation?
Even if you successfully break in, the kids might panic, run from whatever cover they have and be shot trying to climb out. Even if they aren’t shot, they are likely to get cut climbing out unless you have rubber matting to cover the glass shards.
Who wants to die instead of go home to their wife and kids? Regular police in a town of around 18,000 people (perhaps with limited budgets???) aren’t always fully trained for SWAT, are they?
I’m thinking this probably isn’t as simple as it seems.
And I’m guessing they themselves were probably ordered to wait for a hostage negotiator and the professionally trained SWAT team.
Just my two cents, with an alternate viewpoint.
Depends on how high the windows were and how big. Some schools don’t have classroom windows, at least one of mine was like that. Some have very narrow windows, we called the one in another town a prison because the skinny windows looked like what a prison might have. A little kid could squeeze through but an adult couldn’t. Not sure about this school.
This crap about waiting on a key has to be BS. There were other people in that school who had a key. Get real.