The arrest of the suspect in the Century Aurora 16 theater mass shooting Friday morning was yet another example of the dramatic change in tactics since the Columbine High School massacre.
Before the April 20, 1999, Columbine attack, police departments across the country wouldn’t allow patrol officers to enter a building where there was an active shooter until SWAT team members, or at least back-up officers, arrived.
Today, many departments expect patrol officers to go after an active shooter immediately even when they are alone.
“We’ve honed it down that far,” said Sgt. A.J. DeAndrea of the Arvada Police Department. “It’s a very hot topic around the country. There are times when you can not wait. It’s an inherently risky job. Our job is to go in and protect innocent lives.”
Aurora police got its first call about an active shooter at the theater at 12:39 a.m. and arrested suspect James Eagen Holmes, 24, at 12:46 a.m., seven minutes later.
At Columbine, the first call came in at 11:24 a.m., DeAndrea said. The first SWAT team didn’t even enter the school until 38 minutes later, he said. DeAndrea was a team leader of a crew that didn’t breach the southwest side of Columbine until almost an hour after that, he said.
What DeAndrea saw at Columbine drove him to become one of the nation’s leading experts in rapid-deployment strategies. He said the approach has helped save lives.
He has traveled around the country giving training sessions to police and sheriff’s deputies including the New York Tactical Officer Association. He has also gone around the world to critique how police responded to mass killings.
“I still lie awake at night thinking about what is next,” he said.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206, Facebook.com/kmitchelldp or twitter.com/kmitchelldp
