TAYLORSVILLE, Ky. — It’s been one week since a gunman entered a Texas elementary school and began firing, killing 19 children and two teachers.
Three days later, the director of the Texas Public Safety director said it was the wrong decision for local police to not immediately breach the classroom door. Ninety minutes ticked away at Robb Elementary School until law enforcement shot the suspect.
While details are still surfacing on the Texas shooting, this week, a Kentucky police department is informing their community if anything like Texas were to happen, they “will not wait, we will go in!”
“The older I’ve gotten, the more soft I’ve got,” said Chief Brian Sumner. “My initial reaction was I want to be. I wanted to be mad, but I was more sad than anything. I mean, you’re talking about school children.”
Taylorsville Police Chief Sumner said he’s fielded a lot of calls, concerns from families, parents, and those in the community on how their department would respond.
“I knew people will have questions because when the story broke, even my family said, ‘You know, why didn’t they go in?’” Chief Sumner said. “You know, I couldn’t answer at the time. I don’t I don’t know the circumstances, but they even looked at me and my own family and asked what would you guys do? So I’m thinking if my family is asking these questions, I know there are a lot more families asking for the same thing. And just to put their mind at ease is the reason why I made that post.”
In response, earlier this week, on the department’s Facebook page, Chief Sumner shared this message in part: “In the event we are called to an unfortunate situation at one of our schools, The Taylorsville Police and the Spencer County Sheriff’s Office WILL NOT WAIT, WE WILL GO IN!!!”
Chief Sumner said their resources may be limited and they are working with a small staff.
“Our goal is to go in to the situation. We don’t have time to wait on Louisville SWAT or Kentucky State Police Special Response Team,” Chief Sumner said. “You’re talking about a minimum of an hour. A lot of damage could be done in an hour. So when we train, even though we may have the chief, the sheriff and whoever else, we’re going in, we don’t we don’t get the luxury to sit back and call the shots we have to go.”
That’s how they also train for any active shooting drills, going through the different combinations of resources and informing the community they serve.