Comments by "Allison James" (@allisonjames2923) on "Footage Shows Moment Man Casually Starts a Mass Shooting" video.

  1. Just because YOU don’t think it’s relevant information, information on the type of weapon tells us a lot about the potential injuries, number of victims, risk to responding officers, likely number of vehicles & services we need to involve etc. For example, if they’d known right at the start there were explosives, that changes the nature of the incident immediately & the bomb squad should have been called out as soon as that info was learned. The officers are extremely lucky he didn’t rig something to take out the first responders. Especially since they kept walking past his briefcase. A lot of decision-making goes into every emergency incident. Which is why people who don’t even want to give us an address, but just scream “just get me an ambulance” actually delay getting help. There are only so many resources in any one town. If there are likely to be a small number of casualties (which is to be expected in a small Drs clinic with a single assailant using a handgun) then you don’t pour every resource you have in that town & the next couple of towns into the one scene. But once you add explosives which could potentially take out the school/mall/office building in the street, then more resources are required to evacuate surrounding buildings & so you would start pulling in help from surrounding areas, as well as the bomb squad & fire service to standby for search & rescue & to potentially fight fires etc. We’d also give the hospitals a heads up so they can start clearing beds for the most critical patients & we activate air retrieval etc. If you’ve ever played the game Battleship, or world building games, dispatching emergency services is a lot like that. We have a limited number of resources & other emergencies don’t stop just because something major is going on. So we need to gather as much information as we can, to make educated guesses as to what resources are required where & when to be most effective to provide the greatest good for the greatest number
    4
  2.  @recentlives There’s a big difference between someone shooting a handgun, dart gun, a rifle, an Uzi, a BB Gun, a spear gun, an AK47, a bow & arrow or catapult for example. That is why they ask what kind of weapon they have. Big difference in potential number of casualties & severity of injuries as well as planning of how to stop the shooter.
    3
  3. The police dispatcher was hoping they’d say where exactly in the clinic the assailant was to try to help the police formulate a plan to access him as quickly as possible & take him down. I know the questions can sound dumb or be frustrating to people, but there is a valid, important reason behind almost every one of them.
    2