This is One on One with WUKY I’m Karyn Czar
So far this year, there have been 356 mass shootings in the United States according to the National Gun Violence Archive, which considers any shooting that leaves at least four victims injured or killed in its wake. That number rises or falls with organizations who track casualties with a differing criteria for a mass shooting. The 19 children and two teachers killed in Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas clearly made every list.
After surveillance footage from inside the school was released showing a painful 77-minutes of what seemed to be inaction by law enforcement, I was able to get the perspective of Anthany Beatty Sr., the former Chief of Police in Lexington and Assistant Vice President of Public Safety at the University of Kentucky.
“I saw some folks who were taking control and positioning people and those kinds of things” Beatty added, “but for the most part there’s a lot that went wrong with the incident from the very start.”
Beatty, who is now retired brings 40 years of experience in law enforcement to the table and said the response went against all active shooter training.
“The training dictates that you immediately proceed to the area toward the shots being fired and engage the person and whether it’s a shooting or whatever type of criminal activity is going on, to stop the threat to the victims. In this case obviously that did not happen. When they first made the approach to the door, then they started taking fire, they retreated,” Beatty continued “which was OK but the next step should have been, the next plan should be how quickly we can get back there then what do we need to do.”
Beatty also honed in on a lack of an Incident Commander saying “There were some people giving their groups of officers commands and there were other people giving obviously other groups and then another group arrives, and then another group comes who actually goes down the hall to make the assault and the other groups are trying to coordinate. So yeah, from a trained perspective, you could see that is wasn’t well coordinated.”
His assessment was confirmed in the most recent written report released by the Texas House Investigative Committee which cites a “systemic failure” by all agencies at the scene, miscommunication over whether or not it was an active shooter or barricade situation and catastrophic problems ranging from “doors that don’t lock” to “officers that don’t act.”
A report that Berlinda Areola believes was intentionally withheld from families of the victims. Her granddaughter Amery was killed while trying to dial 9-1-1 when the gunman burst into her classroom. Her reaction at a school board meeting this week to what she called a lack of transparency was visceral.
“The only reason why we feel like you’re coming out now is because you saw the videos. It’s out there.” Slamming the podium, Areola shouted “And now we all know the truth!”
And the children are speaking out, saying they are afraid to go back to school and they don’t trust administrators.
Maylee Talyor is a student at Robb Elementary, spoke to board members wearing the same dress she wore to school on the day of the shooting.
“I don’t wanna (sic) go to your guys’ school if they don’t have protection!”
Jasmine Cazares lost her sister in room 111.
“What are you going to do to make sure I don’t have to wait 77 minutes, bleeding out on my classroom floor just like my little sister did!”
Beatty called these natural reactions to extremely traumatic situations. During his tenure with the Lexington Police Department, he was on the scene of several active shooter situations.
“I was actually a victim if you will in one of those myself where we had an officer shot and two family members shot and I was held hostage if you will with another officer for about 25 minutes.”
Beatty told me these tragedies go beyond the actual shooting and are long lasting.
“So you’re already hearing the psychology of some kids who’ve been through this thing ‘I do not want to go back to school.’ And so come this August and September when we’re all going back to school, it’s going to be a different scenario for the school officials and leadership, teachers, school boards. Particularly the school psychologists and the resource officers and the resource officers and the social workers, those folks are going to be on heightened alert to kids and how they react. And then trying to take care of their own psychological well-being.”
As for what schools should be focused on before the start of the upcoming academic year, Beatty said “The schools will have to certainly be on a heightened sense of awareness since this incident has happened so they will obviously review all their security procedures and I envision some special training days, or enhanced training days for these not only active shooter situations but just school violence or opportunities for crimes to occur period. I think we’ll see a heightened sense of alertness and awareness in training from the school systems this year. And that certainly would then involve a review of all their procedures, review of all their training, facilities review for security devices, technology available to assist and certainly ensuring that they have law enforcement officials of some sort.”
I interject, “Which is now Kentucky law.”
“Kentucky law yes” Beatty continued, “and so most states are probably going to see that happen. So I envision the school systems being more on alert to what they need to do to optimize safety for the kids, faculty, staff and visitors at every school campus in our country.”
The gunman at Robb Elementary, who turned 18 one week before the May 24th massacre, was able to buy two AR-15 style rifles and over 2,000 rounds of ammunition in the days leading up to the attack.
As for curbing gun violence, mass shootings in particular, Beatty believes in the right to bear arms, but doesn’t believe the level of firepower that is readily available goes beyond what our forefathers intended.
“I fully believe in the Second Amendment even though I think sometimes it’s misinterpreted, or applied and interpreted in the wrong way.” Beatty said, “Being in law enforcement for 35 plus years, I’ve seen first-hand the tragedy involved with these special assault weapons that are trained for nothing more than just that, assault. They’re not hunting weapons, they’re not for self-protection.”
However, those who oppose stricter gun legislation are now pointing to the shooting at a suburban shopping mall in Indianapolis last Sunday. A gunman opened fire in the food-court, hitting five people, killing three. An armed shopper shot and killed the suspect.
With the number of reported shootings not letting up, and the locations run the gamut from schools, to churches to grocery stores, Beatty has this expert advice.
“Anywhere, anytime now you have to think about the world we are living in which is very different from what we have known in the past and our mindset has to be a matter of self-preservation. So that means that we’re thinking and consciously being aware of situations of people, of events around us that could be, uh (sic) put us in peril,” said Beatty. “And unfortunately in today’s time that means everywhere all the time. I hate to say that but until we know more about the psychology of what’s going on with people right now, anywhere, this can happen.”
And Beatty added that if you see something say something, report any suspicious activity to law enforcement. He also wanted to reassure the public, that what happened in Uvalde does not fall in line with active shooter training.
“My statement still stands that what happened there was not the norm in terms of responding to, getting to the suspect and stopping the shooting or stopping the injury to the folks as quickly as you can.”
My thanks to Former Lexington Police Chief Anthany Beatty for joining me ‘One on One.’ With the start of a new school year just weeks away, I’ll be sitting down with school and law enforcement leaders as well as following active shooter trainings so that you’ll know how well your child’s school is prepared.
