A witness inside of the Health & Human Services Building said employees didn’t respond when a female suspect entered with what they believed was a gun.
“I’m still kinda irritated. They were like chickens with their heads cut off. They were confused, and I don’t understand that, especially being state workers. They should know what to do. They said ‘I don’t know,’ when I asked if we should evacuate the building,” the witness said.
The standoff lasted for about two hours. The witness said as soon as she heard the suspect, 22-year-old Rosenda Rey, had a gun, she grabbed her two toddlers and left.
“You don’t know the mindset of the person who has the gun. Regardless if it was a BB gun or whatever, I went to the furthermost side of the building and waited for officers to get there,” the witness said.
We have reached out to the Texas Health & Human Service Department for comment on how they train their employees in these types of situations.
Below is a statement from the Texas Health & Human Service Department about what happened.
“HHS staff heard a loud noise that came from the women’s restroom. When they went into the restroom they discovered a woman with a gun. Every day our HHS staff work on the front lines serving people in need and they are regularly trained on how to respond to threats of workplace violence. It’s troubling for anyone to face a situation like this and our staff were understandably shaken up by the incident. But they responded appropriately and quickly notified local law enforcement. We are fortunate that no one was harmed in this incident,” -Christine Mannm, Press Officer, Texas Health & Human Services Commission.
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