To quote a retired Special Agent of the FBI who was just on Fox News, “14 minutes is a lifetime”. It was actually several lifetimes. From start to finish, this morning’s incident took 14 minutes.
I usually do not write blogs about shootings the minute they occur, but before our news cycle makes this go away in a few days, I felt compelled today to say a few things.
Today we sit in shock watching the news unfold regarding a shooting at the Covenant Presbyterian School in Nashville today. Three students and three adults are dead and we wait for more information as officials are still swarming the scene. Little is known at the time that I write this but what we do know is perplexing to say the least.
First, the shooter did not fit that “profile” of a shooter as she was apparently a 28-year old female armed to the teeth with 2 long rifles and a handgun. Second, the school itself does not fit the profile as K-6 schools are rarely the target of attacks like this. Third, there are no reports as to injuries. Normally within minutes of a shooting numbers are released regarding injuries to other students and/or teachers but officials seem tight lipped about this facet of the incident although one can hear on the scanner that ambulances were still being dispatched to the location.
A female shooter is rare and so this event will garner more attention than other shootings I expect, but what needs to be the focus of this as the investigation continues is that we have already been informed as to how the shooter entered the building.
A door was left propped open.
I cannot stress how important it is for schools and churches to reach out to firms that do risk assessments and how important it is to partner with a company that can help identify vulnerabilities. I recently have written about an experience I had doing risk assessments for a large facility that had a systemic issue of employees propping doors open with small pieces of cardboard, small rocks and sticks just so that they could wander outside at their leisure and return with ease. That “ease” has a price and today I believe we are seeing that cost.
Blame will start to fly as early as this evening’s news and will include the lack of a school resource officer to inadequate security measures to the need for a ban on assault rifles, handguns and maybe even psychotic 28 year old women but that is the nature of today’s news. The truth is that there are six lives lost today and a door was propped open. It is the simple things, people. The simple things.
May God comfort the families, the school’s students, the schools teachers and administrators and every responder that was forced to respond to this horrifying event.
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