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Uvalde police dept. hosted ‘active shooter’ training class weeks before standing by during massacre

May 28, 2022 | | Print Article

Just nine weeks before Tuesday’s mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, the city’s police force hosted a class on how to respond to active shooters — a class that, it appears, none of their officers took to heart.

Taught by the SWTJC Law Enforcement Academy, the class covered topics such as the “history of active shooter events, ” the “training requirements” for dealing with such a scenario, how to “stop the killing” via a “solo response,” how to “stop the killing” via a “unified response,” and “active shooter scenario training.”

Proof of this class was discovered by Stephen Gutowski, the founder of TheReload.com, a pro-Second Amendment website that offers “fair and discerning reporting on firearms and how they intersect with politics.”

Gutowski found an online pamphlet from SWTJC Law Enforcement Academy that listed the Uvalde Police Department (UPD) as the class’s “host”:

What’s known is that the class was quickly filled and that “peace officers,” “school resource officers,” and “campus security officers” were all encouraged to attend.

What remains unknown is how many, if any, UPD officers attended the event. As to those who did attend the event, did they even pay attention?

According to separate reporting from Mike Baker of The New York Times, the training documents covered during the class are extremely damning.

They explicitly state that an “[o]fficer’s first priority is to move in and confront the attacker,” even if this means “bypassing the injured and not responding to cries for help from children.”

But UPD officers did the exact opposite, instead choosing to first evacuate children — including their own — rather than engage the shooter, Salvador Ramos.

The documents also strongly advise against waiting for a tactical team, arguing that “[t]he short duration and high casualty rates produced by these events requires immediate response to reduce the loss of life.”

“In many cases that immediate response means a single (solo) officer response until such times as other forces can arrive. The best hope that innocent victims have is that officers immediately move into action to isolate, distract or neutralize the threat, even if that means one officer acting alone,” the documents continue.

Yet according to the latest reports, not only did UPD officers avoid engaging Ramos, they did so despite there reportedly being 19 officers present.

During a press conference Friday, Texas Department of Public Safety director Steven McCraw “said at one point there were as many as 19 officers in the hallway outside the classrooms where the gunman had locked himself inside with students and teachers,” as reported by The Texas Tribune.

Finally, the documents make it clear that active shooter scenarios require “courage,” and that those who lack it should seek work elsewhere.

“First responders to the active shooter scene will usually be required to place themselves in harm’s way and display uncommon acts of courage to save the innocent. First responders must understand and accept the role of ‘Protector’ and be prepared to meet violence with controlled aggression,” the documents read.

“The Priority of Life Scale is used to guide first responders during the critical decision making process that is required to effectively neutralize any threats. As first responders we must recognize that innocent life must be defended. A first responder unwilling to place the lives of the innocent above their own safety should consider another career field.”

As of Saturday morning, the hashtag #UvaldePoliceCowards was trending on Twitter.

Look:

As previously reported, the attack didn’t end until a courageous team of U.S. Border Patrol agents bypassed the UPD’s orders to not intervene and decided to storm the classroom in which Ramos had barricaded himself.

Vivek Saxena
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