This just in - panic!

So. There was a single, brutal murder in Needham and the ensuing manhunt. There were 12,000 reverse 911 calls, though the panic that spread next probably took other, less institutional paths.

A pizzeria staff called down a police siege on their own location because a patron:

• Ordered a pizza and soda but didn't eat it right away
  
• Kept getting up and looking out the window
• Changed clothes (into a suit - murderers are known to carry those to throw everyone off the trail) in the bathroom

During the stand-off, the pizza suspect tried to call 911, but the dispatcher was swamped, and it took multiple calls to get through.

So. Two events, and the police communications infrastructure was stressed almost to breaking. We are so not ready for a mass casualty event. Needham probably doesn't have to worry about being a target of terrorism, but it has been six years since 9/11, and an ordinary chemical explosion could always release a cloud of chlorine gas.