Emergency Incident (Essay Sample)

Emergency Incident 
Name of Student
Institution affiliation
Washington Navy Yard Shooting
On Monday 16 September in the year 2013, at around 800 hrs a man entered the Washington Navy Yard and started shooting at the officers on duty. According to civilians who were at the scene of the crime at that time, they heard gunshots from a single man, when the officers of duty started shooting back at the man. According to the official, Alexis entered the Yard as a contractor and shot at the two people that he met just outside the building. He then went to the floor just above the atrium and started shooting employees who were having breakfast, below him. According to this officer, the reason the man did so much damage was that he was shooting at people from above, making it hard for them to fight him (Shear & Schmidt, 2013).
Officers who shot him to death overpowered the man, whose name was confirmed as Aaron Alexis. It was later confirmed that Alexis was formerly working as a reservist with the navy in Fort Worth. He had used three weapons, an AR-15 assault rifle, and a short gun together with a semiautomatic pistol. In the process, eight people were injured, and twelve others lost their lives. It was also confirmed that no officer in charge lost his life (Shear & Schmidt, 2013).
According to Hermann & Williams (2014), officers were confused, and that was the reason they took such a long time to bring down the man. In addition, the police failed to utilize effectively the Incident Command System. When the man was entering the building after shooting at two people at the entrance, the police were very slow in reacting, allowing the man to climb to the atrium where he shot at people from above. Since there were several cameras in and outside the building, the officers should have sounded a warning to other officers, and the man should have been stopped in time, before he shot at more people. I would recommend the police be more vigilant, such that they can utilize the resources that are at their disposal, like the cameras, to quell such attacks.