Shortly after the shooting, the media was reporting that officers were viewing security video tape with a 20 minute delay that caused them problems. The media kept reporting it over and over - and I was wondering why. What makes the delay so significant?
I understood it could have caused them to believe the shooter was still in the building, when he wasn't.
Responding officers were heard on radio transmissions at 2:54 p.m. saying they were seeing Cruz on camera going from the third to the second floor. By that time, Cruz had been out of the building for 26 minutes, according to the newspaper.
But still I could not understand why the media was harping on about this 20 minute delay.
Then tonight the report came out:
EMT says first responders were blocked from attending to wounded at Parkland, Fla. high school
there was a delay in Emergency Medical Service getting into the school in the critical moments after Nikolas Cruz allegedly opened fire . . . Broward County Sheriff’s Office ordered some of the EMS crews not to go into the school when they requested to enter. . . emergency response at Stoneman Douglas apparently went against standard EMS training in which EMS teams typically go into emergency situations right behind police as soon as possible. . . Broward Sheriff’s Office denied access because the location of the shooter was not known.
So we need to know if victims died because Broward County Sheriff’s Office was viewing security video that had been rewound so it was playing at a 20 minute delay:
Broward County School District also clarified on Thursday the high school’s security cameras do play in real time, but they were rewound 20 minutes that day to retrace Cruz’s actions.
The EMS responder added:
I would hypothesize I could have saved lives.
Damn.
That is exactly what I thought when I saw that EMS report.
Show us the video too. All of it... Will we ever see it though? I doubt it. Even Columbine had video of the shooters. Where's the video?
With the number of F'ups in this case - video will be a critical part of transparency and making sure any short comings are addressed.
Lets hope none of the video or radio transmissions magically go missing.
Always this secrecy...
The lights are shining brightly on this incident.
The shrouds of secrecy should fall away if we keep asking questions.