Apalachee School Shooting Why Did it Take So Long for Law Enforcement to Respond?
Both CNN and Fox are giving this timeline and it’s astonishing. According to the timeline it took law enforcement 37 minutes to respond and that is unacceptable.
According to FOX NEWS…
8:15 a.m. The bell rings for the school day to begin.
9:45 a.m. The accused shooter, Colt Gray, leaves his Algebra 1 class at the beginning of class. He supposedly returned to the classroom, but was unable to get back in because the door was locked. He then went to the classroom next door and opened fire.
10:22 a.m. Emergency officials receive an alert through the Centegix system, a new security system implemented in all Barrow County schools in 2024. Multiple 911 calls also began to pour into the Barrow County E911 center reporting an “active shooter” situation.
10:26 a.m. Two sheriff’s deputies and two school resource officers enter the school. A resource officer encounters the suspect, who is armed. The suspect puts down his gun and immediately surrenders.
When I first read this, I thought is was a mistake. When I read it on another legacy news report, I thought they just picked up the wrong information, now it’s been a few days and it’s not corrected and it’s a bit alarming.
When I see the term “resource officer” I assume the officer is posted at the school and that response should be measured in only a few minutes.
However, then we see this post on AP wire that says the shots rang out at 10:20am and that the incident was over at 10:26am. This would make more sense considering the number of casualties…but we still have a problem…
All reports say the perpetrator left the class at 9:45am and was seen shortly after with the firearm trying to access classrooms. That is still an eternity by the time the alarm was sounded and the shooter located. Conservatively, it’s over 20 minutes after the alarm is sounded and the target is located.
We also don’t know how many rounds were fired and what happened from the time the alarm was sounded until the shooter was apprehended.
There is no doubt the newly installed alarm system saved lives, but response and preparedness can still can be improved. The teachers that confronted the gunman we’re unarmed and unprotected. The students and staff that were “caught” in the hall ways after lockdown were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
By the way…this was the “best case” scenario for the lockdown alarm. During class time where the students are already in the security of the classroom. This is the safest place they can be…so to speak.
However, this could have gone a lot worse. If the shooter decided to do this during a class change, or decided to pull a fire alarm (which is very common) the number of injured or dead would have been a lot worse.
