Steve McCraw, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, confirmed that nine officers were inside the building within three minutes of the attack. He has also been extremely critical of the officers’ actions as well as those of the on-scene commander who reportedly issued orders for police to wait. “There’s compelling evidence that the law enforcement response to the attack at Robb Elementary was an abject failure and antithetical to everything we’ve learned over the last two decades since the Columbine massacre,” he said during testimony before a state Senate committee last month. “Three minutes after the subject entered the West building, there was sufficient number of armed officers wearing body armor to isolate, distract, and neutralize the subject,” McCraw added. “The only thing stopping the hallway of dedicated officers from entering room 111 and 112 was the on-scene commander who decided to place the lives of officers before the lives of children,” McCraw continued. “One error; 14 minutes and eight seconds,” the director said of the young students waiting in a classroom for police to save them. At one point, he noted, officers were waiting for a “key that was not needed.” “I have great reasons to believe it was never secured,” he told the state Senate panel. “How about trying the door and seeing if it’s locked?” “Obviously, not enough training was done in this situation, plain and simple. Because terrible decisions were made by the on-site commander,” McCraw criticized. Many parents have blasted the police response as well. The Austin American-Statesman adds:NEW
The @statesman and @KVUE have obtained body cam footage and security camera footage from the shooting at Uvalde’s Robb Elementary. Pay close attention to the time stamp in the upper left hand corner. You don’t see anyone get shot in this video. https://t.co/HsytsOa0tR pic.twitter.com/L9JSse9SeD — Yashar Ali ? (@yashar) July 12, 2022
Even after hearing at least four additional shots from the classrooms 45 minutes after police arrived on the scene, the officers waited.
They asked for keys to one of the classrooms. (It was unlocked, investigators said later.) They brought tear gas and gas masks. They later carried a sledgehammer. And still, they waited.
If anything, this sad, sorry episode proves that ultimately, Americans are responsible for their own safety.
Sources include:
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