Comments by "possumverde" (@possumverde) on "NewsNation"
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Any who do a deep dive into investigating this will find that it was an honest mistake on the chief's part due to many factors. They will also find that almost all of the gunfire and deaths occurred within a couple of minutes of the shooter entering the class room. Well before the main body of the officers and the chief had even had time to get to the scene.
It isn't mentioned much, but there was a ~40 to ~50 minute lull in the gunfire that began around the time the chief arrived. Combine that with his not getting the 911 information about the childrens calls and no one telling him otherwise, his assumption that it was just a shooter holed up in a room alone, waiting to be taken out was sound. Also, when you look at the interior layout of the buildings involved, it's apparent that if the officers waiting in the nearby hallway were to assualt the shooter's room and he be ready for it, they would have taken heavy casualties before reaching the door and all the shooter would have needed to do then would be shut the door and lock it. With the erroneous assumption that he was alone in the room and the accurate recognition of the vulnerability of the officers were they sent in, choosing to wait until shields etc. were available would be the logical choice.
Sadly, the person truly responsible for this tragedy (other than the shooter obviously) was Irma Garcia (and possibly the other slain teacher as well.) The school district protocol requires that all classroom doors be shut and locked while class is in session. The door to Garcia's half of the joined rooms was open (the only one in the school unless the other slain teacher's door was also open...which is unknown currently) At the point that the gunman started shooting outside, he was over twice as far away from the classroom door than Garcia could have been were she at the farthest part of the room from the door and he also had two doors to get through as well. He wasn't even running and yet, she failed to reach the open classroom door to lock it before he got there. If she had followed protocol to begin with or had quickly reacted to the outside gunfire, there would likely have been few if any serious casualities. The classroom doors were sturdy enough to prevent the breach team from getting in without a key, the gunman would have fared no better and been forced to move on.
There's a great deal more of blame to go around to pretty much everybody involved including the district leaders as well. Generally though, everyone dropped the ball in their own way on this. That said, the fatal mistake was that classroom door being open. If that weren't the case the subsequent mistakes from everyone else would most likely never have been.
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The vast majority of the gun fire and deaths occurred within the first few minutes that the shooter was in the room (according to survivors.) Well before the main bulk of the police had time to get there. The slain teachers (or at least one of them) are to blame for most of those deaths. School district protocol calls for classroom doors to be shut and locked while class is in session and at least one of the two doors to the combined classroom was left open. From the point where the gunman started shooting outside, he was more than twice the distance and two doors away from the classroom doors than the two teachers were and yet they failed to get the door(s) shut before he reached them. They were the only class that had an open door.
Thanks to the convoluted and unnecessary existence of the school district's own police department, coordination was a complete flustercluck. The department consisted entirely of a chief, four (maybe five) officers, and a detective responsible for three schools and the district in general. They were not equipped with proper body armor against high velocity rifle rounds nor were they properly armed for a shootout against such. Nevertheless, the first two officers on the scene did attempt to reach the shooter but his position inside the classroom with the heavy steel door for cover was too strong and they were driven back with multiple grazing wounds. They did what protocol called for and called for reinforcements from Uvalde PD as they had the manpower and gear to better handle such situations.
From what I can find, the school district did not have it's own 911 dispatch and shared one with Uvalde PD. Due to jurisdiction, the school district chief was in command at the scene with nearly all of the officers present being from Uvalde PD but it does not appear that he was informed of the calls for help from the children (probably had his radio tuned to his own department's frequency instead of Uvalde's...that's speculation though) Around the time he arrived on scene, a ~40 to ~50 minute lull in gunfire occurred. With no knowledge of the 911 calls and no gunfire, he assumed that the shooter was barricaded in a room with no kids (and no one on scene gave him any information to the contrary.) Looking at the layout of the building's interior, the officers stationed in the nearby hall would have taken heavy casualties were the shooter to be waiting for them to come (as they would have no cover while the shooter would.) Also, the shooter could simply shut the door and prevent any who actually made it there from entering. Without knowing there were kids in there with the shooter, the chief decided to wait for shields to arrive before trying to dislodge the shooter. When gunfire was heard again (likely the poor kid whose phone rang and gave away their hiding place), the mistake was quickly realized and a breaching group organized and sent in.
Also, the school district protocol called for a dedicated officer to be stationed at the high school and middle school with no mention of the elementary school (which is likely why there wasn't an officer there to begin with.) From what I could find, they apparently put most of their security funding into the high school and middle school as well.
Long story short, everybody dropped the ball that day and prior when it came to those in charge of the district. Blaming it all on the chief/police is unfair. Especially since even had they done everything right, few if any of the deaths would have been avoided.
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General firearm safety rules are not always applicable in their use as props on a movie set.
For example, an actor is not supposed to unload or otherwise tinker with a "safe/cold" gun they've been given on set in any way other than what is required for the scene being rehearsed/filmed. For insurance and liability purposes, the status of all firearms on set is ultimately the responsibility of the armorer. If an actor were to take such actions, the armorer could no longer be sure that the weapon is still safe as it's status will have been altered since they last checked it. In order to tell the difference between live and dummy rounds, the gun in this instance would have to have been unloaded. Something Baldwin wasn't allowed to do so he had to trust that the armorer/assistant director had done their jobs and that gun was indeed "safe." (Personally, I would probably have pointed the gun at the ground and pulled the trigger enough to cycle through the loaded rounds...assuming they were supposed to be dummies and not blanks...just to be sure, but that isn't exactly safe either.)
Another issue arises concerning not pointing the weapon at something/someone. It should be obvious that a scene where the actor is suposed to point and "fire" the weapon at the camera pretty much requires that the gun be pointed at the camera and thus anyone behind it. That's why they use plexiglass shielding in front of any cameras involved. The shield is designed to block any type of projectile which might be created by a blank round. A .45 round (like in this case) however, will go straight through it, the person behind it, and possibly the person behind them as well (which is what appears to have happened here.)
When the accident occured, the director, cinematographer, and Baldwin were working on an upcoming scene in which he would fire (presumably a blank when actually being filmed) at the camera. They described what they wanted him to do and he performed the action asking "so, something like this" after which he drew, aimed in the direction of the camera, and pulled the trigger. Had it been a dummy round like it was supposed to be (for rehearsal), then nothing would have happened. Unfortunately, the armorer/assistant director somehow allowed a gun to be given to an actor with a live round in it. Something which should never happen.
As much as I don't agree with his stance on firearms in general, Baldwin the actor did nothing wrong. Baldwin the producer however, might share some blame for the overall poor safety conditions existing on the set. Especially, if he was aware that some of the crew members had been supplying their own live rounds to do some target shooting after wrapping for the day (likely how real and dummy rounds ended up mixed together.) In the end though, the responsibility falls primarily on the armorer and assistant director. Hopefully, someone will eventually manage to create realistic cgi muzzle flashes and accurately mimic natural recoil so that there will no longer be a need to use the real thing in the future.
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