LITTLETON, Colo. (KDVR) — More disturbing details are emerging about how law enforcement responded to the Uvalde school shooting last month.
The New York Times has reported heavily armed officers waited for more than an hour, even after knowing students were hurt inside.
We’re getting a reaction from a survivor of the Columbine High School Shooting, that occurred 23 years ago.
The shooting at Columbine would change so many lives, but it also ignited change in how law enforcement officers respond to these types of shootings, which is what makes this new report even more heart-rending.
We’re learning more about the delayed response time from officers in Uvalde as a gunman fired shots in multiple classrooms at Robb Elementary. The lives of 19 students and two teachers, were stolen.
One major takeaway from the Times article was that police waited 77 minutes before moving into the school as they waited for protective equipment to lower the risk to law enforcement officers. This is crucial because law enforcement agencies have changed how they respond to active shooter situations as a result of what happened here in our own backyard.
A little over 23 years ago, Columbine became the center of the universe for the worst reason imaginable. At the time, it was the setting of the worst mass shooting at a school in history. Two gunmen took 13 lives and hurt more than 20 others all while forever marring the nation’s history.
Craig Scott has one of the scarred survivors, at 16 years old, he was a sophomore at Columbine and lost his 17-year-old sister, the first person killed in the shooting.
“I was in the school library where most of the shooting happened. I was under a table where two friends were killed next to me, and there were another eight students that were killed in that room and then barely escaped my life to learn that my sister Rachel was the first one that was killed,” Scott told FOX31’s Joshua Short.
He said that he’s shocked to hear about the recent reports out of Uvalde, especially given the connection to how his former high school ignited important changes in police protocol.
“I’ve had a lot of conversations with law enforcement going and visiting schools. The first thing that they always tell me is how the biggest thing that Columbine changed for law enforcement was that their protocol is to go in and eliminate the threat,” Scott explained.
Tonight, an investigation into what went wrong in Uvalde continues, as we are reminded of the lessons learned in Littleton all these years later.
The Times cited video footage and other investigative material in their reporting. FOX31 has not independently confirmed these sources.