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Nancy Smith

St. Mary's County Shows Broward County How It's Done

March 20, 2018 - 3:00pm

A school resource officer -- identified on network news around the nation as "a good guy with a gun" -- engaged an 18-year-old shooter after he opened fire at approximately 7:55 a.m. Tuesday at Great Mills High School in St. Mary's County, Md. The shooter, identified as Austin Wyatt Rollins, was confirmed dead after being taken to a hospital.

Rollins wounded two -- a male student, 14, listed in stable condition, and a female student, 16, in intensive care with "life-threatening, critical injuries," St. Mary's County Sheriff Timothy Cameron told reporters at a news conference.

Deputies and school nursing staff immediately administered first aid to the victims, including CPR, Cameron said.

Nobody had to hide in a closet.

I Beg to Differ

No teacher had to make himself a human shield so students would live.

The resource officer at this school of some 1,600 students in the community of Great Mills near the Chesapeake Bay wasn't stationed safely outside when the shooting started.

He was fully engaged with student activity inside the building.

The officer "fired a round at the shooter, simultaneously the shooter fired a round as well," Cameron said. They are investigating whether the officer's rounds struck the shooter or the shooter took his own life. The officer was not injured, Cameron said.

His professional training shone.

The incident comes 34 days after troubled 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, a former student, walked unimpeded into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland with a rifle and took the life of 14 students and three teachers. All while four deputies took cover so far away from the shooting it took them "a while" (one of them said later) to figure out where the shots were coming from.

And it also comes four days before the March for Our Lives rally for student safety inspired by the Feb. 14 massacre in Parkland.

Last month the St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office said it arrested two teenage boys for "Threats of Mass Violence" and a 39-year-old man on related charges after the teens made threats about a potential school shooting at Leonardtown High School. Police said they obtained a search warrant that led to them finding semiautomatic rifles, handguns and other weapons, along with ammunition. 

Compare those actions with Broward County authorities' deliberate ignorance of similar threats in the case of Nikolas Cruz.

Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423. Twitter: @NancyLBSmith


READ MORE FROM SUNSHINE STATE NEWS

Disqualify Broward State Attorney, Public Defender from Cruz Case, Says Victim's Attorney

Progressive PROMISE Program Still at Issue in the Making of Parkland Tragedy

 

Comments

Nancy, just keep telling the truth and maybe someday the naysayers will get it or will go away. Either way, when they use their First Amendment right to take up our time, I hope they will take my grandmother's advice: "Know what you're talking about and tell the truth or keep your mouth shut."

According to your grandma's sage advice, Donald Trump is not allowed to speak, ever again. At this moment, it's unknown whether the officer in Great Mills took out the shooter or he killed himself. Either way, he wasn't armed with an AR-15, like Broward, or Las Vegas, or Connecticut. This particular "class" of weapon (since the NRA wants to play games with the definition) is the tool of choice by mass killers. As a civilian you have no reason to need this unless a gang of liberals is planning to attack you, but don't worry, they will throw money at you, not bullets. The prior expired ban worked, as it is working now in Australia. Ask your grandmother.

Pay no attention to the naysayers, Nancy. You speak the truth and I thank you for it. What you have written is not in poor taste. My niece was wounded at Douglas High. She could have been killed as 14 other students were if the bullet had struck just a millimeter to the left. Nobody in Broward County did the right thing to prevent this from happening. Can anyone name one person? Just about every agency shares blame. I know you were aiming mostly at the sheriff's office but everybody in this warm fuzzy county dropped the ball. Maybe we will learn though too late for 14 families and our children's high school family. Thank you and keep writing.

Whatever anyone does, be sure to avoid correlating violent teenage boys and felons with fatherless homes.

Nancy - Some people just don't get it. You're article is right on the money. We should compare what cowardly and/or inept professionals do with what well trained courageous ones do so we can know the difference, follow their example and learn from them. People that only know how to spew insults can't have the ability to focus on logic and common sense.

Nancy, the 17 graves are still warm. You could show a little more respect. What you are basically comparing is one resource officer who did exactly what is trained to do, vs. at least one officer who was more focused on his retirement and pension. Don't be ignorant and indict an entire county for the mass murder and cowardice of two people. I'm sure as the investigation unfolds, we'll learn more.

Your right you shouldn't indict an entire county for the mass murder. Hopefully you were equally outraged when law abiding gun owners in Florida were made a scapegoat for the same mass murder.

You are an idiot. A handgun ain't an AR-15 and one shooting is unlike any other. This ain't a competition, you fool: one county doesn't "show" another "how its done." There must be an assisted living facility for you somewhere.

Thank you Terry, for speaking the truth. This article is in very, very poor taste.

True Wrote article Nancy...keep them coming on Broward Coward County

Comments are now closed.

nancy smith
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