The 18-year-old gunman fatally shot 19 students and two teachers in what turned out to be the third deadliest shooting in the United States.
And while those in the community closest to the families who've suffered tragic losses are still in mourning, others have castigated the officers who waited for 78-minutes on-site before breaching the classroom to de-escalate the situation.
Curious to hear from other law enforcers, Reddit stupsssss15 asked:
"To police officers, how are you feeling seeing how the situation was handled in Texas?"
A Desired Place For Them
"My city had a mass shooting where 10 people died 3 years ago, it took six responding officers 32 seconds to kill the active shooter."
"My coworker is a relative of one of the officers who responded that night. She told us that he thinks these cops 'deserve to burn in Hell for abandoning those children.'”
– TheOldOak
It's What We Do
"Not a cop but did do fire for a bit."
"I'm not a brave person at all, and I'm not going to pretend to be some hairy a**ed hero. But what we do is a service."
"We're here for them."
"When it's time to go then it's time to go."
"No sh*t you're scared. So is everyone else going interior. That doesn't mean you don't do it. Because as scared as you are, the person trapped inside is f'king terrified, and has none of the protection that you do."
"I honestly consider their response not just to be incompetence, since that assumes good intent and just being a f'k up. In my eyes this was dereliction of duty. Especially if the bit about cops going in to save their own kids and leaving the rest is true. Or the part about Border Patrol going inside in defiance of orders."
"I don't think it's unfair at all to say people should be going to prison over this."
– Guilty_Assignment_25
Cowards
"Military Police here: I am angry beyond words at the tragedy that has taken place. MP training is direct to threat and even without hearing gunshots we are required to breach the building and begin securing it so if people are shot inside we can create a clear corridor for casualties to be collected and treated."
"These cowardly pieces of sh*t should turn in their badges and be held accountable for their inaction."
– theknights-whosay-Ni
"It's Our Job"
"I literally never comment on anything but felt like I should here. I’ve only been on the job for a year and change in the largest department in America and while we’re definitely not perfect I’ve been to a few shootings personally and even with shots ringing out within visual range I’ve never seen any one of my coworkers run away or just wait for ESU cause they 'could get shot' and I know I’ve never run away."
"While I can understand being afraid I can’t understand not doing your job we’re first responders and as such it’s our job to go in there and get it done backup be damned. I hate Monday night quarterbacking but I’ve risked my life on this job for wayyyyy less so when other officers wait idle while kids get gunned down it makes me mad."
– Different_Handle1254
Demand For An Overhaul
"I work for a Sheriff's Department and have gone in to a few active shooter situations, if it's true that officers were standing outside, there needs to be some jobs on the chopping block. Also, it's obvious what departments do active shooter training and which ones don't. Sounds like that whole department needs an overhaul."
– AtwaterKent
Suggested Charges
"Retired LEO: the words 'disbelief' and 'disgusted' hardly scratch the surface. Charge all of them with negligent homicide/involuntary manslaughter."
"To add to the points the others are making: imagine the effect on the children's parents. They already have the horror of their child being killed - knowing that their last moments were filled with terror and pain - but that's now compounded by the thought that their child could have been saved, if it were not for the cowardice of the people they trusted to protect them. These poor souls are now broken."
– anon
"Something Has To Change"
"Was on one of the parents FB pages- whose children survived- and he has massive survivor’s guilt. Says he regrets standing outside, also said 'I was always one of those people that said if it happened at my kids’ school I’d go in… and I didn’t.'"
"Friends and neighbours kids died. He’s posted clips of him driving near the school at all hours of the night. I know he’s not alone, and I’m not sure they’ll ever get over it. Something has to change."
– DucDeBellune
An Awful Thought
"God awful thought - some parents will ask 'was it quick,' with a shake of the head indicating that perhaps their child could have been saved with an actual police response."
"It's hard to see how a community can pull through that without a lot of accountability for inaction being shown."
– TheMania
Like Accomplices
"What's really an extra level of sick on top of it all is that they went in there and got their own kids and they left the other kids. And then they stopped the parents from going to save their own kids. That makes no sense at all. It's almost as if they were on the same side as the killer. It's almost as if they're accomplices."
– Mypantsohno
Objectionable SCOTUS Ruling
"Ashamed of this agency and their so-called chief. If the shooter is isolated, you wait because time is on your side to negotiate. If they are actively shooting people, action must be taken. Just because the SCOTUS says there’s no duty to intervene, I think most LE agencies’ policy and (obviously) public opinion beg to differ."
– AffectionateWalk6101
Over In The UK
"In Britain, there was an attacker with a machete on London Bridge and our unarmed police officers ran towards him with only pepper spray and batons, literally ‘hitty sticks’. In fact, one was an off duty transport police officer with no gear at all."
"I can’t fathom the slowness of the response in Texas."
– lunarpx
Blood On Their Hands
"A doctor, Dr Cheng, literally tackled a gunman in a church recently sacrificing himself for everyone in that church when he died taking him down. I hope these cops look at his story and acknowledge their cowardness every day. The lives of those children are on their hands and it would've been better to have let the parents go in and do their job for them."
– IroningSandwiches
"No Excuse For Police Leadership In Uvalde"
"Federal law enforcement here."
"I took a 1-day active shooter training last year. The the theme they kept hammering into us was 'Stop the killing, so you can stop the dying.' Meaning, you need to find the shooter as fast as possible to kill or incapacitate him. Nothing else matters before then. They had role players with like fake blood/injury kits on screaming for help and we just stepped around/over them in our way towards the sound of gun fire. Once the shooter is dead, then you sprint back and start evacuating and treating people. Also, you go in alone or grab a couple other responders on your way in. You don’t methodically clear rooms, you don’t “secure” stuff, and you certainly don’t try to do crowd control."
"I see a lot of people on reddit say 'standard police procedure is (fill in the blank)' and they are usually wrong. However, almost everyone is exactly right on what I’ve seen about active shooter training. And it’s been that way since f'king columbine! There is no excuse for police leadership in Uvalde to not know this."
"Typically I try to not judge people in these scenarios because there so many different factors and challenges that affect your decision making. However in this case (and in Parkland), f''k these guys. They should be fired and never work in law enforcement again. A lot of people, some police included, sometimes think that valor is like an everyday thing. It’s definitely not (that’s why we hand out medals for it) but to see officers just stand outside that classroom as children were shot and bleeding to death is awful and unforgivable."
– fedman1776
Questioning Law Enforcement Funding
"My dad taught active shooter classes for years before he was retired and I helped out with the exact training scenarios you are talking about. In one, I even roleplayed the shooter when I was about 14 years old. We had kids crying out for help in the hallways as I was shooting blanks down the hallway of my high school."
"It was an insane experience to go through, but we knew what we were doing could potentially save lives if the unthinkable were to happen."
"Looking at this response by police who in theory had this training just a few months ago, I'm not so sure. It's one thing to play out a scenario and say all the right answers in the training and another thing entirely to put your life on the line to save children."
"The argument that the Blue Lives Matter folks have had the whole time in regards to defending the police is that the cops are heros who need resources to save us in the face of tragedy. When I see a video of nearly 20 cops standing outside a slaughter house detaining screaming parents armed with rifles, what exactly is it that we are paying for? This incident has me rethinking a lot of things in regards to how we as a country should be viewing and funding our law enforcement."
–nrain91
Mental Health As An Arguement
"The 40% part is what puts me over the top on this. If one side wants to argue it's all mental health and not a gun issue, then in this situation, half that budget should now be allocated to making mental health available and affordable for the county. Let's see them put their money where their mouth is."
– moriarty70
In addition to the condemnation of the police officers who failed to effectively take action, politicians–particularly Republicans–remain denounced for enabling mass shootings to continue in the U.S.
When will it ever be enough?
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Over the weekend of November 10, Kimberly used "$200 worth of rifle targets, called tannerite" to turn her dress into a firebomb waiting to happen. With the help of her sister, Carla Santleben-Newport, and her dad, she captured video of herself shooting a rifle at the marital dress from 200 feet away, resulting in a pretty epic bit of catharsis.
Carla posted the video to Facebook, along with the hashtags "#TheLoserIsGone, #OurFamilyAndFriendsAreAwesome and #YourGirlfriendSucks."
Kimberly, 43 years old, commented that she wanted everything from her marriage out of the house, either thrown away, donated, or (in the case of the dress) incinerated:
"I wanted to remove all things from our marriage from the house...Photos in the attic, ring in the safe (but probably going to sell it) and the dress I wanted to burn. I had a lot of advice and suggestions from friends and family, like donating it for premature babied and baptism gowns. To me, the dress represented a lie. I wanted to have a divorce party to burn the dress."
More than 40 people were invited to the event. Party guests were given complimentary "I'm Not with Stupid Anymore" headbands and the chance to witness Kimberly's liberation first hand.
For Kimberly, the event wasn't about "getting back" at her ex:
"It wasn't done for him or about him. It was just our family having a fun-filled celebration."
Of course, she also made sure the explosion was safe by keeping a bomb-tech friend nearby at all times.
"On the one hand, it was like being on a set of some action movie. The explosion was huge. It was liberating pulling that trigger. It was closure for all of us."
The internet was wowed by the fiery ending to Kimberly's marriage:
Cons of marriage: you stay frustrated for 14 years Pros of marriage: you get to blow up your wedding dress… https://t.co/4zZ8sHnKcE— Ninda Turtle (@Ninda Turtle) 1542391004.0
— Yeah, symbolic ritual, but only in Texas would anyone blow up their wedding dress with 20 pounds of high explosiv… https://t.co/ZjjF3rpoOH— DavidFranklin Farkas (@DavidFranklin Farkas) 1542470442.0
20 pounds of explosives to blow up 1 wedding dress? Sounds about right. https://t.co/S1kHzpeY9d— B J Kelli (@B J Kelli) 1542118102.0
What a great way 2 celebrate a divorce!! If you're going 2 blow up your wedding dress then do it big. So big it's r… https://t.co/GoVG6FifiS— Sassy Blonde (@Sassy Blonde) 1542241679.0
Carla Santleben-Newport/Facebook
Carla Santleben-Newport/Facebook
Carla Santleben-Newport/Facebook
Though there were a few people who had regrets over the loss of a nice dress...
@nypost Blow up the ex not the wedding dress. Poor dress. RIP dress.— Ricky Alta (@Ricky Alta) 1542135707.0
Congrats on moving into the next stage of your life, Kimberly! May you find joy and contentment by looking forward rather than looking back.
The woman, who wishes to be identified only as Lauren, said she awoke late that night to find her boyfriend stuffing cloth into her mouth and "duct taping her entire head:"
I truly felt like when that was happening, like, I was going to die there that night.
I'm SO glad the woman from the mystery doorbell girl story from Texas last month is speaking out about how she surv… https://t.co/Pu9chez70o— Naptime Nancy Drew (@Naptime Nancy Drew) 1537218773.0
Lauren's boyfriend, 49-year-old Dennis Collins, sexually abused her before allowing Lauren to go get a glass of water from the kitchen. While he returned to the bedroom momentarily, Lauren escaped through the front door into their darkened neighborhood.
Once there, she desperately began searching for help, explaining the doorbell-ringing videos.
@LeighEgan @crimeonlinenews I hope this story helps some people to understand that stories such as these need to be… https://t.co/bmXtP4P1KC— Naptime Nancy Drew (@Naptime Nancy Drew) 1537230447.0
The police found Lauren in the Dallas/Fort Worth area after searching for several days. Dennis Collins was also revealed to have shot himself on August 29.
The Sheriff's Office revealed he left behind a suicide note:
Before doing so he left several notes connecting him to the female who appeared to be wearing restraints. The male indicated that he did this in response to the national attention given to the situation among a few other things not yet disclosed.
People were very happy to see that she was safe:
@ABC This scared the crap out me. I felt so sick wondering if she was ok. Thank goodness at least she’s safe.— GoBluWave 🌊🤔👵🏻🇺🇸🌻 (@GoBluWave 🌊🤔👵🏻🇺🇸🌻) 1535975516.0
Lauren believes that the doorbell video and its spread on the internet may have been what saved her life:
I worry that if this video hadn't come out, and if he were not gone, that I eventually would be.
Remember that if you ever find yourself in a situation where you need support like Lauren did, there are always people ready to help.
Here at the National Domestic Violence Hotline, we are closely monitoring this story https://t.co/V95xzRM7m1 If you… https://t.co/kxRKdM5jNs— National Domestic Violence Hotline (@National Domestic Violence Hotline) 1536887185.0
H/T - Inside Edition, People