‘I know we saved lives’
How law enforcement response to active shooters has evolved since Columbine
MIDDLETON - Three minutes after the first 911 call of an active shooter at a software company, the first law enforcement officers arrived and one minute later they were inside the building running toward the awful sound of gunfire.
Approximately a minute after entering the building, two Middleton police officers and two Dane County sheriff’s deputies were exchanging gunfire with Anthony Y. Tong, who turned his handgun on them instead of his co-workers, three of whom were already wounded.
It all seemed to happen so fast but the actions of the first officers on the scene in the Madison-area suburb on Sept. 19 are rooted in a massacre almost two decades ago where the loss of life was much greater and the term “active shooter” was not yet a part of Americans’ vocabulary.
The law enforcement reaction to senseless shootings in schools, public places and businesses like WTS Paradigm has evolved over the years as the body count has piled up. The sea change dates back to the killings
at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999.
Back then many agencies had specially trained SWAT teams that deployed to handle hostage situations that could last for hours. The first patrol officers at the scene were taught to set up a perimeter and wait for the SWAT team.
That’s what happened at Columbine, where SWAT team members entered the high school 47 minutes after the rampage started, slowly and methodically going room by room. By then 35 people had been shot, a dozen fatally. The two killers were also dead. An investigation showed the killing spree lasted 13 minutes from the time of the first 911 call.
As more and more tragedies happened, including 2012 shootings at Oak Creek’s Sikh Temple and Azana Spa in Brookfield, law enforcement officials changed their thinking.
While agencies still have SWAT teams, in essence, every sworn officer is now a SWAT team member. They’re trained to immediately find and engage the shooter to neutralize the threat. Because every minute counts.
It made all the difference in Middleton. Instead of continuing to empty his weapon on co-workers, Tong focused his attention on law enforcement. None of Tong’s rounds hit officers while some of theirs hit him, immediately stopping what could have been many more casualties.
“I know we saved lives,” Middleton Police Chief Chuck Foulke said. “I know there were people inside he had access to and he had shown no compunction about shooting them.”
A 'target rich environment'
There were 105 people inside WTS Paradigm the morning of Sept. 19 — people sitting at their desks, talking on phones, doing their jobs in cubicles. There were an estimated 500 people in total in the building that houses WTS Paradigm and connected buildings.
That’s what Foulke termed a “target rich environment.” Though police have not revealed exactly how much ammunition Tong brought to work that day, they said it was a substantial amount.
After Tong was shot, officers began CPR and paramedics were brought in to the office to try to save Tong’s life, even though the scene had not been fully secured. Victims were also quickly tended to outside the building.
Foulke said officers were fairly certain Tong was acting alone but had not completed searching the building before paramedics came in. That’s something that has changed, too.
Many communities now train paramedics, firefighters and police to work together during active shooter events, which means medical staff that previously waited outside the hot zone for an “all clear” are now clad in ballistic vests and helmets and are often right behind officers.
“In Middleton, we had a tactical medic on one of the rigs. They went in and cared for one of the persons most critically wounded, he had been shot multiple times,” Dane County Sheriff David Mahoney said.
“We don’t expect the paramedics to carry a rifle or handgun but when they show up at a scene as they did in Middleton, they were able to immediately respond with officers.”
The chaos of Aurora, Colo.
Mahoney mentioned the rampage in Aurora, Colorado, in 2012 when a gunman opened fire inside a crowded theater during a midnight showing of “The Dark Knight Rises,” killing a dozen and wounding 70 more.
Fire trucks could not get close to the cinema because of a traffic jam of police vehicles and fleeing theater-goers and in at least one instance an ambulance crew declined to go inside. Police officers put wounded people in the back seats of their squad cars to transport them to hospitals.
NPR reported Wednesday that had paramedics and firefighters been allowed inside Pulse nightclub in Orlando two years ago, the death toll could have been lower. A gunman killed 49 people inside the nightclub but a study in the journal “Prehospital Emergency Care” concluded that 16 of those casualties might have survived had they received basic life-saving care within 10 minutes and arrived at a trauma hospital within an hour.
The medical kits now carried by all Middleton police officers include tourniquets, quick-clotting bandages and plastic “Halo Seals” to cover open chest wounds. Most officers carry them in their uniform pockets to rapidly stop bleeding and are trained to use found items should they use up their equipment — such as shoelaces or belts for tourniquets, or plastic bags or tissue box seals to close chest wounds, Middleton Police Capt. Troy Hellenbrand said.
“Boston was an eye-opener for me,” Foulke said of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. “A lot of people were saved that day because of tourniquets. A tourniquet was used on” a WTS Paradigm victim.
Middleton officers also carry in their squad cars AR-15 rifles, ballistic helmets and shields, and specialized body armor with pockets for additional ammunition clips and medical kits. They practice putting on all their gear as quickly as possible.
When police realized waiting for SWAT teams proved disastrous in Columbine, the idea was for the first officers on the scene to quickly face the threat in a four-person team, entering the hot zone in a wedge or diamond shape.
First officer in
But now if the first officer arriving is alone, they’re trained to go in by themselves and try to neutralize the threat, said Chad Cunningham, national trainer and director of product development for ALICE Training Institute, a security training company that offers active shooter classes to law enforcement agencies, schools and other organizations. Law agencies send officers to the institute to learn how to conduct active shooter classes for civilians.
Cunningham cited a 2013 FBI study that showed most active shooter events last between 5 and 8 minutes, and about 60 percent of incidents are over before law enforcement arrives.
“We don’t have the time for a team to get developed, to get on site and get coordinated,” said Cunningham, a retired University of Akron police officer. “Now the most efficient way is to get officers in to stop the threat. Patrol officers are always the first on the scene.”
The four officers who exchanged gunfire with Tong had all undergone active shooter training but were not SWAT team members. Middleton Police Officer Tyler Loether is a member of his department’s training team and Richard O’Connor is an active shooter response trainer. Dane County Sheriff Deputy Matthew Earll is assigned to child support enforcement and deputy David Lambrecht works on the traffic team.
They knew what to do
They were among the first to arrive and knew what to do.
The sheriff said of his deputies “one was assigned to enforce speed, alcohol and seat belts and the other is on the child support team who goes out and tracks down deadbeat (parents.) They transitioned into what they were trained to do and both are heroes,” Mahoney said.
Many law enforcement agencies in Wisconsin and throughout the U.S. conduct active shooter training for schools, businesses, churches and other groups. Requests for training frequently spike after active shooter events, and the WTS Paradigm shooting is no different.
Foulke said the phone has been ringing off the hook at the Middleton Police Department.
One of the first businesses to call and schedule active shooter training for employees was Esker Inc., a software company located in the same building as WTS Paradigm.
Mahoney started his career in the Dane County Sheriff’s Department 39 years ago and has been sheriff for the last 12.
He was a member of the sheriff ’s tactical response team when the Columbine massacre happened and knew that the officers there did what they were trained to do, “but as we look at it today, the wait caused a loss of life.”
Foulkes has worked his entire career in Middleton, 39 years with the last 4 1⁄2 as chief. He was a school resource officer in the 1980s, back when the thought of a shooting on school premises never entered his mind.
It took some time to wrap his head around the thought processes of active shooters, that their goal is to kill as many as possible.
When Mahoney and Foulkes joined their departments, there was no such thing as active shooter training. Now every recruit goes through the training at academies and continues to take courses throughout their careers.
In the past officers were trained to help the injured if they came upon casualties, but now if they have to step over a wounded person to get to the shooter, that’s what they’re supposed to do. And that’s not easy for people who chose law enforcement as a career because they want to serve their communities and help people, Foulke said.
Citizens awakened to threat
Meanwhile, citizens have become awakened to the threat — that they can be shot while watching a movie or sitting in math class or working at their desk — and have become more proactive. Foulke said WTS Paradigm employees took shelter under desks and fled the building when they could, many with their arms up. Something police didn’t tell them to do.
“We cannot accept this as the new normal. But it is the norm,” said Foulke, adding that while his officers did what they were trained to do and stopped the shooting within eight minutes, it was still a tragic event. “Eight minutes, that’s like eight hours. I’m proud of that response but it’s not outstanding for those who were hiding under their desks.”