According to the New Mexico State Police, after he entered the school wearing a backpack, the shooter went upstairs and entered the boys restroom. Paco Fernandez had been excused from class to go to the restroom and was shot upon entering the restroom. Casey Marquez was shot in the hallway as the shooter apparently exited the restroom. Neither student appeared to be specifically targeted but were random victims of the shooter. The shooter then proceeded to move through the hallway and shoot into the glass of classroom doors. One of the true heroes of the tragedy was custodian Thomas Hill who followed the student through the hallway shouting for classrooms to go into lockdown that this was not a drill. Another true hero was a 74 year old substitute teacher, Kathleen Potter, in the computer lab who did not have a key and could not lock her classroom. However, Mrs. Potter knew the lockdown procedure and sheltered the sixteen students in her care into an office/supply room and barricaded the door with a couch. The shooter, knowing the shelter in place procedure for this classroom, tried to gain entry into the room and shot multiple times through the wall while shouting, “I know you are in there,” while trying to gain access. Finally, the Aztec Police Department had four officers on the scene in less than a minute from the time that the shooting began. This is truly an amazing response time and the officers’ immediate response is to be applauded.
In the midst of the tragedy there are some immediate lessons to be gained from the shooting.
1. The school apparently reacted quickly and locked down immediately. This reaction, combined with the fact that, with the glaring exception of the substitute Ms. Potter who did not have a key, teachers apparently had their classrooms locked. This is an extremely important detail that saves lives in an active shooter situation. Despite the “inconvenience” of keeping classroom doors locked after students enter to start each class period, the procedure prevents active shooters from gaining access to the classroom. Classroom doors should be capable of being locked from the inside and all teachers should have working keys. Substitutes should be issued keys to their classroom which are returned at the end of the day before the substitute leaves for the day. Had Ms. Potter not understood how to quickly protect the students, the shooter would have had sixteen (16) ready targets in the classroom. This is exactly what happened at Sandy Hook since the teachers in that case had to go outside of the classroom to lock the classroom doors.
2. It appears that at least some of the classrooms have panic buttons at Aztec High School. This fact was alluded to in interviews conducted after the shooting in which a student referred to his teacher hearing shots, hitting the panic button, and then directing the students to a corner away from the sightline of the door. Other video, apparently shot by students, seems to indicate that some classrooms didn’t initially react quite as quickly thinking that the lockdown announcement was merely another drill. Students were still sitting in their desks, lights were on, and the shooter would have had a line-of-sight had the teachers not reacted before the shooter arrived at their classroom. This underscores the fact that all teachers should treat all lockdown announcements as if it were the real thing.
3. If the reports that law enforcement had to shoot their way through locked doors holds, then the school should make sure that Knox boxes, or other rapid access systems, are installed so that first responders can immediately enter the facility 24 hours per day. In any active shooter situation seconds count and a rapid access system could have sped up an already fast response by the Aztec Police Department.
4. This incident, as in most every school shooting that I have examined that was not merely a spur-of-the-moment escalation, was suspected or known to be about to occur by someone. In this case there were indicators that were overlooked by the FBI and the shooter was cleared. In the days and weeks that will follow it will probably be discovered that relatives, friends, or social media contacts had evidence that the shooting was going to occur. Since the shooter obviously planned this attack there were more than likely comments and conversations that should have tipped someone off that the tipping point had been reached for the shooter. Those indicators, combined with the previous investigation by the FBI, should have been enough to help prevent this shooting. The problem is that people see and hear but don’t report their concerns or suspicions. Lives are saved when suspicions are reported and investigated. This was a young man who was very obviously mentally disturbed, yet no one apparently moved to see that he received help or was at least placed under observation so that he could not hurt himself or others.