An alarming and rather scary standoff in a West Mesa High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico, has gone viral, where a local police officer managed to prevent a potential school shooter tragedy. Apparently, one of the students thought it would be cool to sneak a gun into school for whatever reason, and thankfully, some witnesses tipped off the teachers, who then alerted the police, leading to a tense classroom confrontation:
The incident took place on August 20 at West Mesa High School. In the video, you can see the Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) police officer ordering the 16-year-old suspect to get on the ground, based on reports that he brought a gun to school. However, the student was actively defying the police officer, angrily shouting “I ain’t got nothing on my hand. What do you want me on the ground for, cuz?!” and refusing to get down.
Still, due to the student’s refusal to comply, the ALICE protocol for active shooters had to be observed, and the whole classroom was evacuated afterward while the police restrained the suspect. Upon restraining, the officer found a gun in the student’s bag. The 16-year-old was detained without injury and taken into the Bernalillo County Juvenile Detention Center for unlawful carrying of a deadly weapon on school property.
Apparently, the 16-year-old student managed to sneak a gun into West Mesa using his bag, but another student saw this gun in the bathroom and alerted the teachers. It’s not clear whether the student intended to harm anyone or themselves, or what his motives were for bringing a gun into a school. Meanwhile, despite the shocking nature of the arrest, APS has maintained its stance that the responding officer did the right thing and followed protocol:
“We’re still reviewing the incident, but our initial assessment is that the officer’s actions followed protocol based on the totality of the event. The officer was in a low ready stance, and he never pointed his gun at anyone. Students were safely evacuated, and nobody was hurt,” according to Martin Salazar of APS, transcript courtesy of ABQJournal
Sadly, Not an Isolated Incident
Despite APS’ explanation on the ALICE protocol (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate for active shooters, people were still in disbelief at how the situation was handled, but others debatably sided with the police officer:
“They could have asked the kid to come into the hallway to talk and then detained him without endangering anyone else,” argues an X user
“If they invite him into the hallway, and he did happen to have a weapon.. Don’t you think that’s more risky, when the kid knows he is cooked? If had intentions of doing harm to others, that would be the exact moment.. when he gets caught,” responds another
“The ‘student’ was reported to have a gun in school. Protocols were activated. What is the police officer supposed to pull out, a lollipop?”
“High school is way too different now”
Alarmingly enough, this wasn’t the only gun found on high school students all over Albuquerque during that day. A total of five guns in four separate incidents were discovered at West Mesa High, Albuquerque High School, and Del Norte High School. The West Mesa incident involving the 16-year-old student in the video was only one among them. In any case, August 20 was a rather dangerous time to be a high school student in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and an incident that should never happen again.
