The E.W. Scripps Company’s Post

Transcript

It's just that you're going have an active shooter and we're not sure where he's at. My name is Laurie Jangly Ha and this is our three-part series into the main mass shooting in which eighteen people were killed in October of 2023. I think what's really important as journalists is to talk to people who have been directly impacted by this. They still have lots of questions themselves. They want to know how is it possible nobody was able to stop the shooter. It just didn't have to happen because there were so many people that knew he was going to do a mass shooting. He had shown all of these warning signs. There were threats. He had access to weapons. When we started to tally up how many officers knew about this, it became clear that more than two dozen police officers in two different states had information that might have stopped this shooter and and nobody was able to do it. We learned that even though the shooting occurred in Maine a few months earlier, this shooter had been encountered by the New York State Police. And so we put in a records. Tries to see if we could get the body worn camera from that encounter. It keeps saying behind my back, I confront them and they pretend like I'm here instead he's gonna hurt himself or yeah, that's I was gonna ask what what's what's the concern? Our concern that is that he's gonna hurt himself or someone else. OK. We were able to hear the voices of the military colleagues of this shooter. They were there talking to New York State police saying we are concerned the shooter is going to hurt himself or others. He has access to guns. He is behaving differently. One thing that was so ominous was the encounter that New York State Police had with this shooter when they went into his room. They're concerned enough about your welfare that they called us. Ohh. Because they're scared. Because I'm gonna freaking do something because I am capable. So in New York, there is a red flag law that is intended to prevent shootings like this, mass shootings, suicides. And in Maine, there is a yellow flag law. That is intended to prevent mass shootings. It's put in place to stop people to get their guns removed when they are a threat to themselves or others. No one took that extra step. If these laws are working, why didn't they prevent these mass shootings? The law is only as good as the implementation, and so that requires system actors on the ground working together collaboratively to ensure that firearms are removed. Known to be armed and dangerous. One thing we want to shine light on is if these laws exist and officers aren't using them, why? And if it's an education issue, how can we as journalists bring attention to these issues so that people are aware of them and do know how to use them? Robert, what's your last name? We wanted to know how much officers were trained on the red flag law in New York. We got so much resistance. Eventually they were able to tell us that the two senior troopers that day did not have any sort of verbal training or instruction from an instructor. They just had booklets. Manuals policy that they were required to know. We also want to know what people knew in Maine. So we started getting some of these records in. We started to put together the puzzle pieces and we're able to find that of the 20, three officers at least that we found in the state of Maine that had some sort of interaction or knowledge about this shooter's threats and his access to guns. Of all of those, they all had training. So we know that they all knew about the yellow flag law, but nobody was able to follow through with making sure that that law was. Actually use in this case. I did not even consider a yellow flag law. You didn't think he was dangerous? I did not. This has been a lot of work. We've been trying to work as quickly as possible, but also we've had to be patient to get some of these records. You know, this isn't about pointing the finger at one person or one agency. This is about preventing future mass shootings and shining light on the information that people need to have. But I think if we can provide information and make a valuable contribution to these communities and to communities across the country so that we can possibly prevent future mass shootings, that's what our goal is.