They Never Tried the Door? (UPDATE)

 

Another stunning Uvalde development: The door to the classroom where a gunman killed the students and teachers was probably unlocked all along. Footage shows officers didn't try to open it until SWAT arrived.@bchasnoff https://t.co/YYPhrbxB9Q

— David Sheppard (@Sheppard_David) June 18, 2022

This has to be the grimmest example of a police force doing the very least imaginable. I was trying to keep up with the changing stories just post-the tragedy, but my initial post that "I thought they knew" about the 911 calls (the Uvalde police chief now says he never had his police radio, as it would have slowed him down (?) and he didn't exactly know who was supposed to take the lead on the affray) never anticipated that weeks later, the local PD would be fighting very hard against any evidence being made available. 

Weeks later, we are finding out that they never tried the door. We were told they were fucking about in the hallway with no one immediately going to look for keys when to my mind, if they had even a glimmer of a hope any kids were alive, they should have been looking for a prybar--anything! to try and end the shooter's spree. 

The idea that they didn't even try the door at all is just madness. Why in the hell not? Because they really would have had to do something? And now I'm only more certain than ever that when they finally did breech the premises, they must have fucked it up worse. Maybe even caught victims in the crossfire. Because they've given us absolutely no reason to believe otherwise based on all the other paucity of evidence we've got. 

Grief might be forever, and peace of mind is hard to come by, but in lieu of that, the families and the community deserve the truth so they can get accountability and action. They deserve it! How can their elected officials think anything but? 

Well, CYA. But that impulse is a damned disgrace. And I don't know how they would live with themselves.

UPDATE: They had ballistic shields and long guns. They could still hear the gunshots. And at least a few of the officers on the scene did want to go in at once. They should have indeed had some kind of prybar for this type of situation. They didn't lack for anything but the decision to move. 

UPDATE: The school can no longer stand, because the situation is too painful for the community to endure. Asking anyone to stay teaching or trying to learn where so much tragedy took place is just an awful lot. One day we will salt the earth with places that we can't revisit owing to the violence that once was there. I don't think this is how a healthy society does anything. We must unlearn violence. We must desanctify the gun as a part of our national religion.