Posted
by Patrick Quinn
September 29, 2006 at 8:10 a.m.
Bailey
I didn't go to the scene, about an hour away in neighboring Park County. Instead I went to the radio station, called our sheriff to find out if Park County authorities had requested assistance from the Summit County SWAT team (they had not), and then hunkered down on the wire and the television and watched the standoff unfold.I didn't see many mistakes. It is always preferable to wait out situations like this one, and that's exactly what the Park County sheriff tried to do, but in this case the gunman imposed a hard four p.m. deadline, and the tactical situation precluded any attempt to deploy less-than-lethal force. Questions will be asked about it came to pass that the gunman had time to fire at the police officers, shoot a hostage and then shoot himself as the tac team was making a hard entry, but this is--God help us--an academic question; he barricaded himself in the classroom and was using his two remaining hostages as human shields, which guaranteed that he had time to fire at the police and shoot at least one student no matter what the tac team did. In any event he was a dead man the instant he pulled the trigger, whether he did himself in or fell in a rain of police .223. The other hostage was not injured during the entry.My media colleagues did as well as humans can be expected to do under the circumstances. Accurate data is at a premium during incidents such as this. There were a few cases in which broadcast reporters passed along erroneous information, but these were minor and in each the reporters qualified their reporting, stressing the fluid state of the emergency, the rapidly changing circumstances, the tenative nature of what little information was available. Associated Press did a tremendous job, as did Denver's NBC affiliate, KUSA-TV. (Full disclosure: My employer is a former KUSA anchor, and both she and her husband, a former KUSA general manager, continue to have a relationship w/ the station, although I know none of the details. I have no relationship w/ KUSA.) AP beat everyone on the gunman's death by about 10 minutes, which is the equivalent of about a century in modern media-time.I'm a little distressed by the repeated references to the Columbine massacre that keep popping up in the national coverage, such as this, from yesterday's first AP update: "The lines of students fleeing the high school and middle school, the bomb squads and the frantic parents scrambling to find their loved ones evoked memories of the Columbine attack, where two students killed 13 people before taking their own lives." Columbine High School is less than an hour from Platte Canyon High School, so I suppose this is inevitable, but in many ways what happened at Bailey was the anti-Columbine. The officers who arrived first at the scene did not waste time establishing a perimeter or setting up a command post; instead they immediately entered the school and moved toward the sound of gunfire. The school was quickly and expertly evacuated, which was possible in part because the school was designed after Columbine and offers intruders limited sight-lines and lines-of-fire. The gunman was contained to a single room, and the police immediately opened up a dialogue. The gunman refused a throw-phone, communicating instead through one of his hostages, and over a period of hours the police negotiators convinced him to release four of the six hostages. Thirteen innocent people died at Columbine. One innocent person died at Bailey. This was no Columbine.The more comparable prior incident occurred in Chicago in 1966, when a man named Richard Speck invaded a nursing dormitory and spent a night raping and murdering eight student nurses. All but one of Speck's victims died. All but one of the victims in Bailey survived. The difference can be attributed to the professionalism and energy of the law enforcement response in this case. The Park County Sheriff's Office and the Jefferson County SWAT team will be replaying this tape for a long time, and so will every other agency in Colorado, but this time the cops did just about everything right.Sometimes you can do everything right and still lose people.
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lazz (anonymous) says…
It's very worthwhile to point out the discrepencies in relating this week's tragedy to the tragedy of Columbine, but I would have to chime in that it's the unfortunate reality of high-speed, low-intelligence "media" delivery systems. Once the haircuts and empty suits identify the most surface-level connections -- in this case, Colorado, high school, guns, hostages -- the link is forevermore and irrevocably established. Instant history is not good history, but it's what we have now. And as long as we labor under realities such as "AP beat everyone on the gunman's death by about 10 minutes, which is the equivalent of about a century in modern media-time," this is what we'll be left with.
Interesting, PQ, that you offered something of a defense for the police action. Is the mood out there that this thing needs defending? It looks fairly obvious from a distance that the sheriff and his teams reacted swiftly and surely, and, as you note, the unfortunate outcome was an inevitability of the circumstance, and the officers are to be commended for not allowing it get any worse ...
thetomdotdot (anonymous) says…
The Columbine comparisons will be the fodder of news, talk, and shit talk (i.e.Nancy whatshername) from now on.
Law enforcement will be second guessed on every point. If they are declared heroes, then someone will do a controversial show about how they were responsible for the girls death. If mistakes show up early, then someone will do a controversial show declaring them heroes.
Call me jaded, cynical, digusted with humanity, or Nicodemus. Whatever. Its way too easy to call.
Thanks PQ, for the closer look at some of the people involved, and for being one of the good guys.
There's days I wish I prayed.
ladylaw (Terry Bush) says…
Whether I like it or not, most things in this world are simply not all that simple. Black and white truths may exist, but I appear to be too stupid to see or understand many of them. So, in honor of that realization, I try real hard to pre-judge (or even judge) the actions of too many other people. I am deeply sorry for the loss suffered by the young girl's family, I feel pretty sure that all the parents and students in that school will be forever changed, and I don't think the involved police officers are likely to remain un-impacted by the day's events. Human beings are not easy to understand and even harder to love some days. But I still keep trying.
quinno (Patrick Quinn) says…
lazz--
There was some on-air stuff from national anchors Wednesday afternoon that flirted w/ sniping, mostly Columbine remarks, but I haven't heard any sustained criticism of law enforcement action. There are civilians who (understandably) are horrified that a teenaged girl was killed, and they want to know how and why it happened, but so far it looks like the audience understands that this was a no-win situation for the cops.
TTDD--
I had exactly that conversation w/ our sheriff Wednesday night. He observed that the cops would be criticized no matter what they did, and hinted that this was a characteristic response of "the media," and of course I teed off and noted that "law enforcement" is not a monolith, and neither is "the media," and that there are good cops and bad cops and good reporters and bad reporters, and the discourse is not furthered when we lump everyone together as if we're all--cops and reporters--opposing herds of cattle.
I wish people would stop confusing talking heads like Nancy Grace and Michael Moorer w/ real reporters, but that's a lost cause.
LL--
This one got to me. I'm not sure why. When I saw the live video of the LifeFlight arriving at St. Anthony's, and they were administering CPR as they pulled her off the helicopter, well... A gunshot victim still receiving CPR after 35 minutes in the air, you know that's not good. I was in my office surrounded by station staff, and suddenly I was fighting tears. Yday I took a long walk, it was a shockingly beautiful Colorado day, snow-capped mountains, brilliant clear air. The kids in our middle school were out on the athletic field, and suddenly _our_ LifeFlight helo took off, prolly for a training flight, from it's pad just a block or two away. The image, the helicopter flying over the school, was too much, and I walked into the trees and started crying. Totally irrational.
I'm leaving Colorado (and daily reporting) and returning to Lawrence next month. I have a terrific oppty back home. I made the decision before Bailey, but it's obviously time. A weeping reporter is no good to anyone.
lazz (anonymous) says…
Weeping reporters are good to everyone.
We need more weeping reporters. People for whom the tragic events of the day are real, rather than career opportunities and another boxcar in the endless scare train of opportunities to trap the captives of the blinking box into not changing the channel for hours or even days ...
Weeping reporters are good. We do not have enough weeping reporters.
wbabbit (Will Babbit) says…
The only think I do wonder, and maybe I read it too early, but how does a 37 year old pass himself off as a high school student?
quinno (Patrick Quinn) says…
53 years old, and apparently he was on school property for almost an hour before he took the hostages. Video suggests he spent 20 minutes in the parking lot in his Jeep before he went inside, and was in the building, mingling w/ students, for about 35 minutes before he entered the classroom.
Just hellish.
MyName (anonymous) says…
If I was in HS, I'd look at an 'old dude' like that and think "substitute teacher, or parent, or school board member, or other visitor", and might not give him a second look.
quinno (Patrick Quinn) says…
Thanks Lazz.
"People for whom the tragic events of the day are real, rather than career opportunities and another boxcar in the endless scare train of opportunities to trap the captives of the blinking box into not changing the channel for hours or even days ..."
That's a helluva line.
mitzibel (Misty Nuckolls) says…
Yay! We get PQ back!!!!
Sorry. Had to take the mood up a few notches because my toddler wanted to know why I was crying.
ladylaw (Terry Bush) says…
I am glad to hear you are returning to "us" and proud of you for crying. I think it is a testament to your intelligence and humanity. Would that more people, no matter their profession, be able to cry when faced with facts so tragic. Even the best of hardened cops take a moment or three to weep, when there is time, over such things. It does not mean you cannot do a job well. It means you still are able to care. Never a bad thing!
quinno (Patrick Quinn) says…
Thanks guys. It's really hard to leave this place, but I'm delighted to be headed back. I have a million things to do in the next three weeks, including moderating a candidates forum and completing the county's first-ever Citizens Police Academy.
At last week's academy session I was killed three times--stabbed to death once and shot twice. In my most specatacular failure, I was shot--twice!--w/ a 12-gauge shotgun. Also a madman driver shot me during a traffic stop, but in that instance I took the bastid w/ me.
Two more sessions. For the duration of the academy we're special deputies. I am considering going on the air and announcing the blanket arrest of all the criminals in the county, just order them all to assemble and report to the Justice Center. I'm pretty sure I'm the only member of the class who's been in jail in three states.
Summit County has been a gas, it's a special place and I've been here just long enough to start feeling proprietary. (Trapped behind a crawling RV on the Dam Road, I have occasionally muttered, "flatlanders...") I worked for a terrific indie newspaper, chipped in at Mountain Gazette, learned a little bit about the radio business and came to know people who will be friends for life. I love this place, and I will come back often and feel like I belong. But Lawrence is home.
lazz (anonymous) says…
Yeah, but I lost my Colorado Couch ...
OhioJayhawk (anonymous) says…
And, of course, I am compelled to add that "Weeping Reporters" would be an excellent name for a rock band.
Yours very truly from soon-to-be-snowy Cleveland...
PJ
cutny (anonymous) says…
Damn Quinn...Powerful. You write in a way that is possible for the reader to feel what you felt, and for that I am grateful. Hellish, hellish day. I thought I could never imagine the horror, but you got me pretty f-ing close. Hope you are well.
quinno (Patrick Quinn) says…
hey Curt!
Howareyaman? Getting back to Lawrence anytime soon? We must make a night of it. We could hit all the bars and mutter snarky rockwriter things to each other about the bands.
rockchalker52 (anonymous) says…
thetomdotdot, you are jaded, cynical, digusted with humanity. you should keep a chin up.. i'll get back to you with the reasons why.
thetomdotdot (anonymous) says…
rockcahlker,
Well, it appears the Bailey critical over analysis will have to wait til after we dissect the Amish for actually exercising their faith.
I am holding my breath for the reasons you promise.
UKept (anonymous) says…
Quinn--
Just a quick note, since I appear to have lost your email in the Laptop Disaster of aught-six, that I'm going to be back for ten days in November (16-26). Hope to see you at the Pig.