Bringing Calm to Chaos A critical incident review of the San Bernardino public safety response to the December 2, 2015 terrorist shooting incident at the Inland Regional Center Rick Braziel, Frank Straub, George Watson, and Rod Hoops This project was supported by grant number 2015-CK-WX-K005 awarded by the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions contained herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. References to specific agencies, companies, products, or services should not be considered an endorsement by the author(s) or the U.S. Department of Justice. Rather, the references are illustrations to supplement discussion of the issues. The Internet references cited in this publication were valid as of the date of publication. Given that URLs and websites are in constant flux, neither the author(s) nor the COPS Office can vouch for their current validity. Recommended citation: Braziel, Rick, Frank Straub, George Watson, and Rod Hoops. 2016. Bringing Calm to Chaos: A Critical Incident Review of the San Bernardino Public Safety Response to the December 2, 2015, Terrorist Shooting Incident at the Inland Regional Center. Critical Response Initiative. Washing- ton, DC: Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. Published 2016 Contents Letter from the Director of the COPS Office ..................................................................................... vii Letter from the President of the Police Foundation ........................................................................... ix Acknowledgements........................................................................................................................... xi Executive Summary ......................................................................................................................... xiii Introduction ............................................................................................................................................xiii Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. xvii Introduction ......................................................................................................................................1 The COPS Office Critical Response Technical Assistance ......................................................................... 1 Scope and goals of review ........................................................................................................................ 2 National and international implications ................................................................................................... 4 Report organization .................................................................................................................................. 4 1. Methodology .................................................................................................................................5 Data collection .......................................................................................................................................... 5 Analysis ................................................................................................................................................... 10 Development of lessons learned ............................................................................................................ 10 2. Incident Context and Background Information ............................................................................. 11 Geography .............................................................................................................................................. 11 A history of collaboration: Responding public safety agency descriptions ............................................ 16 iii 3. Police Response to Terrorist Shooting at Inland Regional Center .................................................... 25 A normal start to a traumatic day .......................................................................................................... 25 The first to respond ................................................................................................................................ 27 Pandemonium ........................................................................................................................................ 30 Agency leaders arrive and take charge ................................................................................................... 31 An army of probation officers ................................................................................................................ 32 Training for the real thing ....................................................................................................................... 32 Clearing the building ............................................................................................................................... 33 Getting victims safely to triage ............................................................................................................... 34 Triage and transport: The golden hour rings true .................................................................................. 36 Discovery of secondary devices .............................................................................................................. 36 A lead surfaces ........................................................................................................................................ 37 The gunfight ............................................................................................................................................ 38 Keeping the public informed .................................................................................................................. 40 Hundreds of witnesses ........................................................................................................................... 42 Multiple scenes tackled by multiple agencies ........................................................................................ 44 The officer-involved shooting scene ....................................................................................................... 44 The coroner: Investigation and notifications ......................................................................................... 46 The media frenzy .................................................................................................................................... 47 The aftermath ......................................................................................................................................... 48 Timeline .................................................................................................................................................. 49 iv Bringing Calm to Chaos: The San Bernardino Public Safety Response 4. Leadership ...................................................................................................................................51 Trust ........................................................................................................................................................ 51 Previous critical incident debriefs and reports ....................................................................................... 52 Organizational awareness ...................................................................................................................... 53 Teamwork ............................................................................................................................................... 54 Managing elected officials ...................................................................................................................... 54 Leadership lessons learned .................................................................................................................... 55 5. Command and Control ................................................................................................................. 59 Incident command and command posts ................................................................................................ 60 Self-deployment ..................................................................................................................................... 60 Command and control lessons learned .................................................................................................. 62 6. Planning and Response ................................................................................................................. 67 Training ................................................................................................................................................... 67 Communications ..................................................................................................................................... 71 Building search ....................................................................................................................................... 72 Trauma care ............................................................................................................................................ 72 Planning and preparation lessons learned ............................................................................................