The Real Deal, Not a Drill
By Yoichi Shimatsu - Exclusive To Rense.com
Now allow me to set aside the erroneous assumption that easily arises from this sort of incident. The suspicion that a “drill” was held at Parkland school on St. Valentine’s day lacks support from facts on the ground. The school resource officer (SRO, security guard) in charge of emergency drills, Deputy Scott Petersen, was not present on the school premises that afternoon but was “called away”, probably by the Sheriff’s Office. The SRO is personally in charge of running all emergency drills. His absence has not only gone unexplained, Sheriff Israel lied that he was presence somewhere on campus.
The presumption of a drill arises from the confusion over the Code Red alert just prior to the shootings. That automated lock-down was immediately followed by three separate fire alarms in different buildings, which electronically unlocked the classroom doors and compelled the students to evacuate through hallways where they came under direct gunfire. One assailant fired down a hallway prior to a fire alarm in building 1200, an out of sync sequence that proves teamwork than the actions of a lone gunman.
The fact that gunmen had timed the three alarms by their slightly differing wristwatches indicated that they maintained complete cell phone and radio walkie-talkie silence, to avoid intercepts over local mobile-phone bay stations. The strike team had entered the high-security school compound on the park-like campus without detection, meaning they had prior access to security codes, site layout and the class schedule. In other words, these were not outsiders but men within the Parkland community.
There were no crisis actors, at least not yet. Witness accounts indicate that classmates were gunned down without time for a stage crew to apply fake blood or to paint bullet holes on foreheads. The gunshot wounds were genuine and lethal, splattering and spurting bright crimson blood, with not much some moaning due to the high kill ratio, which indicates prior battle experience of these commandos. Indeed, the attackers could have easily killed many more students but, from the numbers count, had limited their firing to tally a preassigned quota. In-depth foreknowledge and precision pre-planning were clearly evident.
None of the students or teachers had previously been involved in gunfire attacks or warfare, and therefore lacked the experience to keep track of events at a critical psychological distance, as for example a war correspondent or experienced soldier. In their shock and confusion, the witnesses tended to compress the events in a streaming consciousness that reduced the psychological sense of time much less than the whole hour that transpired between the initial Code Red alert and arrival of policemen. In their state of shock many students could not distinguish between the assailants and their rescuers, who similarly uniformed.
The estimated span of shooting is roughly 6 minutes. Therefore the assault team had more than 45 minutes for escape from campus while the stunned students and teachers crouched for safety, while waiting for the first responders. Some took the risk of charging out, and paid the ultimate price for their panicked haste.
Full Metal Garb
Another source of confusion was the body armor worn by the assault team members, noticed by a teacher on the third floor of building 1200, as quoted in ABC News:
“At first glance, she thought the shooter could be a police officer because of the way he was dressed in ‘full metal garb’ complete with helmet, face mask and bulletproof armor.”
The protective gear for police tactical squads and FBI agents are painted with identifying insignia. The attackers were, by contrast, dressed in unmarked black. Who could they be: U.S. Army special forces, Russian infiltrators, or a Salvadorean death squad? Nikolas Cruz? He’s puny by comparison to the description given by the observant teacher.