so it didn’t take quite as long as we thought it might take… wink, wink. Then we got them out of here. We opened doors at 4 for the contest with the event at 5. everything for the event, putting the pictures on the podium and get- ting everything ready. Once they had that set, they started organizing, stream for the event. We didn’t realize that. They told us earlier it would be televised but I guess they got bound by technicalities and decided to stream it. We just let it ride. They were equally ready on their end. They had a game plan in place that they were perfectly planned on executing to the T. After we opened the doors, people came in and then the crowd just dropped event started on time. They started doing their thing. We pulled in our set-up on the exterior of the facility with our detectors and everything. I released CSC and told them to leave. We’re rocking and rolling just
like any other event. I was in an- other part of the building (I didn’t particularly care for the rhetoric) and just told the police to call me on the walkie talkie when it was over. They do their thing and the event is over. It was uneventful, prob- ably 90 minutes or two hours, and had about 150 to 180 in attendance own army security team. They looked like they were straight out of a movie. These guys were well trained and some bad actors. I wouldn’t want to see those guys at night or day time under any circumstances team with her. Her guys did not look as astute as these other guys. I get the call that says, “Hey, the event’s over.” As I’m walking up the
everybody is saying, hey, there’s a group at the back of the building. There were all kinds of things going on. They were saying the guys had bombs planted on them. No one was going up and addressing the bodies at that point. For all we knew it could have been a hundred attackers out there.
Of course, people had tons of questions for me and I had no answers for them. But I was thrown back and in shock by how they thought this was one big game. There was not one single person I saw in there that was upset or looked like they were fearful about anything. They were singing. In our minds, we thought we had them in a secure group and secure setting. People were sending out photos of us in the room and where we’re
“Your heart is racing, and then you say,
located. Keep in mind, we don’t know what’s going on the outside. I asked them, would you please stop? This is a secure location that’s not secure any more if you are letting everybody know where we are. That was a big disappointment to me. They might not have cared about their individual lives, but I cared about mine.
‘Wow, this happened on my watch.’ Knowing you are always going to be remembered for this. Nobody is going to forget this day.”
I got behind a pillar to make
sure I had some concrete behind me. I decided I had done all that I could do for these individuals. The cleaning people that we had and my two ops people got secure
in the building to make sure that, however it went, we would possibly come out of this thing alive. I suggested to the individuals that if there is somebody you want to contact, go ahead and send a text now, because there was all kind of and looking at every angle. They’re checking all that out. We have a wooded area to the rear of the facility which could be a problem for I was getting tons of texts coming in because people are viewing this
hallway, I go into the room and there is still a huge crowd even after the event has ended. They were chatting and wanted to do pictures and president leaving a facility with a motorcade. Some of the people left just like they would at any event. I probably had to walk 50 feet from the end coming up when I heard on the police Some people were going to their cars in the parking lot during the time of the shooting and were brought back to the facility and ushered into the arena. How would the attackers know exactly when to come? Well, they
were plugged in on the streaming. I don’t have any evidence of that but I have common sense that tells me that they had to be. They had to be plugged in to the stream but they didn’t count on people staying behind and getting autographs. They counted on when it was over everybody was going to the parking lot. The objective was to hurt a lot of people. They came over to the west lot, which is where everybody entered
of them right there on the spot in the street. They never made it on Department did a fantastic job of dealing with what they were trained to do. That process only lasted about two minutes, if that long. We were in the arena. I had heard no gun shots, nor did anybody else in there. All we hear is radio rubbish coming in. We’re in here and
now on CNN. All the information I was getting was coming in from the outside as to what they were reporting. I’m in here and just hearing all this rubbish across the police radio. If you listen to a police radio, There is everything going on. Your heart is racing, and then you say, “Wow, this happened on my watch.” I don’t think anybody associated with a facility wants this to happen at your building, where you are going to be remembered for this. Nobody is going to forget this day. That’s where we were with it.
Clearing The Building After about two-and-one-half hours we were told the building needed went out with armed guards. They loaded up the buses with individu- als and took them to a secure location. I was told I needed to leave too. A school district security guy and
myself were the last two people in the building that were non-police the building would not open the next day, so I sent emails and texts and point, you always want to have a game plan work. Hey, ours worked. It was very unfortunate that this could happen, but it worked. Then it was, where do we go from here? No one here was hurt. Our plan worked. They didn’t even get on the property. This took place on the street. We were happy with that.
IAVM 17
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