Some thoughts about the Austin-East (Knoxville, TN) Shooting (Long)
I have been thinking a lot about this the last 24 hours. Here are a few of my thoughts kind of condensed.
The first is, after reading everything I can get my hands on about it (I'm originally from the area and familiar with the school, kind of, as it was near my daughter's high school and we sometimes went to church with kids from there) I'm convinced it could have been prevented if the police had someone who could de-escalate the situation. Instead, it sounds to me like they stood outside the bathroom where the young man was and ordered him to "drop the gun and come out", and when he didn't, they stormed in, ordered him to drop it again, and shooting commenced. He was shot dead and one of the officers, a school SRO, was shot in the upper leg.
https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/crime/2021/04/13/knoxville-austin-east-high-school-shooting-what-we-know/7197954002/
"Police say they received a report of a student with a gun and went to the school at about 3:15 p.m. Monday. Officers located the teenager in a restroom and ordered him to leave, according to a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation preliminary report. Police say they entered the restroom when he refused to comply. When the suspect fired at police, the report said, an officer returned fire. The student was pronounced dead at the scene."
It does not appear to me as if any de-escalation at all was attempted. None. What's wrong with this picture? Why didn't they try to negotiate, try to get the young man out of the bathroom, try to get him to stop whatever he was doing? I'm wondering if he was despondent, perhaps thinking of suicide. Or maybe mildly but not seriously homicidal. Young people don't barricade themselves in a bathroom if they're planning on coming out with guns blazing. They're going to go into a classroom or the cafeteria and blaze away. This kid didn't do that. I wonder if he was planning on hurting himself or this was a gesture. Apparently he and his girlfriend were having some problems.
https://www.wbir.com/article/news/crime/i-love-him-girlfriend-of-shooting-suspect-shares-memories-heartbreak/51-6b602028-bf2a-40e7-a1c8-87884c5c5cac
"Page admits she and her boyfriend were mad at each other that day.
"I just know the petty arguments aren't worth it," she said. "Pick and choose what you argue about. You never know when it's gonna be your partners time." "
But because of impatient cops who couldn't take the time or didn't have the will or the skill to de-escalate the situation, we have a young man dead before his time, a grieving family, a heartbroken girl, and a wounded cop...who by all accounts is a decent enough sort.
And here's another thing, while we're asking questions....Austin-East is a majority-Black school; some say 70%, some say more than that, up to 90%. The SRO is white. They also had a couple of "security cops"...why? And are they also white? Shouldn't they have a Black SRO? It also looks like the cops that went in were all white. Maybe that's why they were so damn impatient....or scared of a young Black man with a gun. Would they have handled it differently if it were at majority-white Bearden High School across town and the student were white? I bet you can guess.
