Re: Houston's Ben Taub Hospital Evacuated, Reports of Active Shooter Situation
Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2017 6:56 pm
Both HPD Chief Art Acevedo and Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzales (both left-leaning new additions to the area) were on scene.
Unsubstantiated reports--mind you, this what one one-the-scene reporter said someone had told him, but he had no firsthand interview--said that a man became agitated and upset in the second-floor Eye, Ear, Nose & Throat area and pulled a handgun. Someone allegedly shouted, "Drop the gun! Drop the gun!" The "shooter" allegedly then put two rounds into the ceiling.
But still, as of the latest 17:00 update, LE is still indicating that no evidence of rounds fired has been found.
I'm going to scour public data tomorrow to see if I can find detail of the initial reports and resultant response. Acevedo said, more than once, that "multiple" MWAG and shots fired calls came in beginning at 13:58. He never said precisely how many calls "multiple calls" meant. I do find it a bit odd--considering how many TV reporters were on scene shortly after law enforcement, and how much the average person seems to like to try to get interviewed on-air--that I can find, at least so far, not a single Houston station that found any of the multiple callers to interview.
The LEO response seemed be very rapid, but I don't know arrival time following the first calls. And unlike recent mass shootings, like San Bernardino, there seemed to be no hesitation by LE to infill. I believed SWAT scrambled immediately with other responders and were probably on scene almost as quickly as the black-and-whites. By the time the media got wind of it and broke in over the air with the news, LEOs were already inside the hospital and conducting their initial sweep.
The hospital has a pre-established protocol that, in an active shooter event, calls for total evacuation other than in-progress surgeries. Evidently, that protocol was implemented immediately, even before LE arrival. I'm trying to wrap my head around why a semi-chaotic herding of patients, ambulatory and not, into congested hallways and elevators doesn't increase, not decrease, the targets immediately available to a mass shooter. But nobody asked for my opinion.
There were immediate responders from HPD, both beat patrol and canine, SWAT, the Harris County Sheriff's Department, and county fire and EMS. They quickly had several streets blocked off as part of the perimeter set. But then again, inside that perimeter were hospital staff and scores of patients on foot, in wheelchairs, and on gurneys. Maybe the hospital's protocol for an active shooter is the same as for a highly credible bomb threat. Dunno. But there were a lot of LEOs onsite in and around the hospital.
Unsubstantiated reports--mind you, this what one one-the-scene reporter said someone had told him, but he had no firsthand interview--said that a man became agitated and upset in the second-floor Eye, Ear, Nose & Throat area and pulled a handgun. Someone allegedly shouted, "Drop the gun! Drop the gun!" The "shooter" allegedly then put two rounds into the ceiling.
But still, as of the latest 17:00 update, LE is still indicating that no evidence of rounds fired has been found.
I'm going to scour public data tomorrow to see if I can find detail of the initial reports and resultant response. Acevedo said, more than once, that "multiple" MWAG and shots fired calls came in beginning at 13:58. He never said precisely how many calls "multiple calls" meant. I do find it a bit odd--considering how many TV reporters were on scene shortly after law enforcement, and how much the average person seems to like to try to get interviewed on-air--that I can find, at least so far, not a single Houston station that found any of the multiple callers to interview.
The LEO response seemed be very rapid, but I don't know arrival time following the first calls. And unlike recent mass shootings, like San Bernardino, there seemed to be no hesitation by LE to infill. I believed SWAT scrambled immediately with other responders and were probably on scene almost as quickly as the black-and-whites. By the time the media got wind of it and broke in over the air with the news, LEOs were already inside the hospital and conducting their initial sweep.
The hospital has a pre-established protocol that, in an active shooter event, calls for total evacuation other than in-progress surgeries. Evidently, that protocol was implemented immediately, even before LE arrival. I'm trying to wrap my head around why a semi-chaotic herding of patients, ambulatory and not, into congested hallways and elevators doesn't increase, not decrease, the targets immediately available to a mass shooter. But nobody asked for my opinion.
There were immediate responders from HPD, both beat patrol and canine, SWAT, the Harris County Sheriff's Department, and county fire and EMS. They quickly had several streets blocked off as part of the perimeter set. But then again, inside that perimeter were hospital staff and scores of patients on foot, in wheelchairs, and on gurneys. Maybe the hospital's protocol for an active shooter is the same as for a highly credible bomb threat. Dunno. But there were a lot of LEOs onsite in and around the hospital.
