Skeptic Ginger
Nasty Woman
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2005
- Messages
- 96,955
In case you're wondering what lessons cops have learned in the aftermath of the Uvalde mass shooting:
A Seattle school went into lockdown after a deranged man hopped the fence and started chasing students around. Teachers and other school officials managed to deal with the erratically behaving man and direct him away from students. When the cops finally showed up, they initially refused to get out their car and confront the intruder, and tried to claim they couldn't detain, much less arrest, a school intruder unless the principal pointed out particular students who were harmed. Faced with this abdication of duty from the police, the principal walked away from the cop hiding in his car and returned to where the intruder was.
Faced with this embarrassing behavior, they threw the principal under the bus, lying that his refusal to cooperate made it impossible for them to do their jobs.
https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/two-conflicting-stories-what-really-happened-sand-point-elementary/7TXOCPCXERGO5HJX63LIF7HST4/
Of course, local news sources initially ran the cops absurd story totally on their word alone. Obviously the public smelled a rat because none of the claims the cops made are credible. The notion that a school intruder situation is not one where a cop has unambiguous probable cause to make an arrest, especially when the intruder is still present and behaving erratically, is simply not believable.
My neighborhood safety group had a report about this from a neighbor who had 3 kids at the school.
I would like to share about the incident that happened at Sand Point Elementary on Thursday, June 2nd, beginning at 2:15pm. I have read accounts in the press that do not present the accuracy and the gravity of the situation, and I’d like to present the events from the perspective of a family at the school.
I am the Dad of 3 children at SPE (5th, 4th, and 1st grader). My wife is an active volunteer with the Sand Point PTA. All 4 of them were on site and witnessed various portions of the event that transpired.
At ~2:15pm, prior to school dismissal, there was a 5th grade and 1st grade class outside on the playground. My wife was onsite passing out cupcakes on the playground for our 1st grade son’s birthday. At this time, multiple people witnessed a mid-20’s male climb and jump the fence onto school grounds. He was also in possession of a bag that he had thrown over the fence and picked up once on school grounds. (Will refer to him as ‘intruder’ at this point forward).
A teacher saw the intruder and yelled at him to STOP, and that he was not allowed to be on school grounds. The intruder disregarded her and started running after students on the playground. (Multiple students have since said that the intruder was chasing them.)
As this was happening, the teacher yelled for someone to call 911, and for the students to immediately go back into their classroom and call the office. She went to alert and help others to safety. A 5th grade boy alerted the younger students that, “A man just climbed the fence onto school grounds and they needed to go in the building.”
As my wife dialed 911 and began to report the emergency (the time was 2:19pm), the 1st grade teacher gathered younger children to go back into the school building. They would then proceed back into the main building classrooms, whereby they closed windows, locked doors, and told other classrooms and kids they were in lockdown.
The 5th grade students began to run toward the portable buildings, where the 4th and 5th grade classrooms reside. Several students were screaming, and the intruder continued to chase students toward the portables.
Once the 5th graders were in the portable, they closed the door and my 5th grade son called the office and told them, “There’s a man that jumped the fence and is chasing students. He’s coming into our classroom. Send the principal.” The portable door was unable to lock from the inside due to a faulty lock, so several of the students held the door shut as the intruder attempted to enter the classroom. The students resisted, but he was finally able to force the door open and enter the classroom. Students were screaming, crying, and several were responding in panic. My 5th grade son said that it sounded like the intruder was yelling in English as well as another language. The intruder singled out a female student, said that she looked like his sister, grabbed her shirt in his hand, and asked her what her name was. She yelled back at him, “I’m not going to tell you.”
As this was transpiring, the 4th grade teacher who had been next door had heard all the commotion, initially thinking that the screaming outside was the kids playing a game, but quickly realized something was wrong. Her own students were beginning to be scared. (My own daughter later said she was shaking, having a panic attack, and attempting to comfort her friends who were crying, scared, and hysterical.)
The 4th grade teacher entered the 5th grade portable and stepped between the intruder and the students. She began to talk him down and told him to leave. She was able to talk him out of the classroom as the principal arrived and intervened between her and the intruder, talking him away from the students and teacher. The 4th grade teacher gathered all of the 4th/5th grade students into her class and remained in lockdown while the principal urged the intruder away from the school. The principal did not lay hands on him, as he noticed inside the intruder’s bag was free of weapons, and felt he was either mentally unstable or on drugs and did not want to make the situation escalate by making him feel threatened. The intruder was verbally telling the principal to leave him alone and get away, to which the principal responded that he would not leave him alone until the man left school property. The intruder proceeded to walk around outside on school grounds for a period of time (the amount of time was believed to be ~10 min). During this time, he took a students’ backpack, and emptied the contents of his bag into the students backpack.
By this time, several other School authorities had been alerted and started to show up at the scene. A school district supervisor/employee who lives nearby came on site and stepped in to support the principal.
An SPD Officer had responded to the scene by this time but remained in their vehicle. The officer must have received my wife’s number from emergency authorities, because he called her from his vehicle (the time stamp was now 2:32pm on her phone) in an attempt to understand what was going on. He asked my wife if she was a staff member, to which she replied ‘no’ and told the officer the school was in lockdown. The officer’s response told her that he was unaware that the school was in lockdown.
The principal approached the officer’s vehicle at this time, identified himself, and told the officer that the intruder was still on school grounds, needing to be removed from the property. The officer remained in his vehicle and asked the principal to spell his name for him. The principal left the officer at this point to walk back to the intruder and was finally able to usher him off the school property, at which point the officer stepped in and began to talk the man away from the school. The officer was concerned that the man was in possession of stolen property from the school, and verbally stated that he did not want to escalate the situation further by laying his hands on him.
As all this transpired outside, the kids in the school remained in locked until ~2:50pm. Many parents had gathered outside the school building by this time, as it was 20min past normal school dismissal. Many of the classrooms did not know the reason for the lockdown, but those who had witnessed and been part of the events were shaken, crying, and scared. Many of the students had been discussing the recent school shooting in Texas in their classes since last week, and several of them were worried that this kind of event was going to happen to them while they remained in lockdown.
The kids were finally alerted over the intercom that it was safe to leave, and they were all walked out the front of the building and released from school to parents and buses.
I am unable to comment with full accuracy on what transpired after the man left the school grounds. I have been informed that the man may have later taken into custody after an attempted robbery of a DHL truck, and an assault on a Metro bus driver (please correct me if this is inaccurate).
Personally, this has been overwhelming. From what we know and witnessed, I'm most frustrated with the lack of immediate and strong intervention by SPD. I’m also concerned for the safety gaps that this exposed with the facilities of our schools. I’ve been told by school authorities that the building and policies are being evaluated and updated, most notable the locks and door mechanisms of the portable classrooms.
I am fully convinced that the school staff, teachers, and authorities acted in the best interest of the safety of my children and the school community with the information they had. I’m proud of the SPE children, their bravery, and all of the School staff for how they acted in the best interest of our children and community.
Sand Point Elementary School, Seattle, WA
So the principal not cooperating was not wasting time spelling his name to the cop.
I'll go with the first hand account over news accounts which never get it exactly right and the SPD account which was just as much CYA as seems to be the norm for the cops.
