Savannah State Shooting Response Analyzed

It's been nearly two weeks since a shooting on the campus of Savannah State University.      School officials received a lot of criticism in the days that followed, regarding their handling of the incident and communication to the public while it was ongoing.  News 3 spoke today with an expert who reviewed the 9-1-1 tape and offered his observations.  Dr. Tod Burke is a professor of criminal justice at Radford University in Virginia.  He is a former Maryland police officer himself who's research interests include school or campus violence.  It's an interest he got perhaps too close a view of last year - as Radford is just 30 miles from Virginia Tech where more than 30 people were killed in a shooting last year - so he speaks from experience when he says that in the Savannah State incident - some things went right - some could use some improvement.

There are a lot of things that Dr. Tod Burke thinks went right after a student was shot on the savannah state campus.  He says, “I think a number of things went well and I think a lot of criticism is unfounded.  First of all, the lockdown I think was excellent…I think the campus notification system did a fine job.  They apprehended a suspect, there was multi-agency response and that's always complicated when you have a number of different agencies responding.”  That's one of the things Dr. Burke believes the university could work to improve.  He says though outside agencies can not respond to a campus emergency unless formally requested, the fact that it took nearly an hour to get other agencies on campus shows the need for better cooperation.  Dr. Burke says that could be accomplished with emergency training drills utilizing multiple agencies and cooperation agreements between all neighboring agencies would allow for better coordination during an emergency.  Dr. Burke says no response will ever be perfect and no one strategy will fit every single college or institution but he does believe communication is key - something Savannah State could have done better.  “I think when it comes to communication - the more communication the better - and it doesn't necessarily mean that you have to notify everybody at every second of the process - but at certain points in the process, when you know something - it's a good idea to keep the people that are responding informed, to keep the students, the faculty, the staff, the administrators informed on what's going on and at some point the community.”

The university waited almost four hours after the shooting before holding their first briefing about what had happened.  Meanwhile, an administrator for a nearby school had been unable to get information to help him decide how to respond for his student's safety.  Those are things that concern Dr. Burke - but he does believe the university has been unfairly criticized for refusing to give out the name or description of the suspect they sought that day.  “I think when the police have a suspect in mind, they know who they're looking for - then they're gonna go after that person.  Keep in mind that the suspect may also be listening to the news and watching the news and if they know where the police are and what's going on - they may panic.”  A situation which could lead to more danger for the public.  Dr. Burke also praised the training of the nurse at Candler hospital who got information and made the initial call about the shooting victim to Metro dispatch.

When contacted last week regarding their handling of the shooting - a Savannah State spokesperson said they would do no more on-camera interviews about the incident.  The president of Savannah State has released a statement saying they will evaluate their response to determine whether any procedural changes may be in order.