Police admitted an impressive series of failures, including driving right next to the gunman, in responding to the Texas school shooting while children were being slaughtered inside, and the head of the state Department of Public Safety said it was time to put excuses about the failed answer. was over.
Friday’s news conference came after days of confusion, inconsistencies and a confusing timeline of law enforcement’s response to the disturbance at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
Speaking about the delay in breaking into the classroom where the shooter was, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw said that “from hindsight where I’m sitting right now, of course it wasn’t the decision. correct. It was the wrong decision. There is no excuse for that.”
“There were children in that classroom who were still at risk,” he added.
McCraw revealed that the gunman entered the school through a back door that he found open at 11:33 a.m. and began shooting in rooms 111 and 112. At least 100 shots were fired “according to audio evidence in that room.” moment,” he said.
Just two minutes later, at least three police officers entered through the same door as the gunman. At 12:03 p.m., there were as many as 19 officers in the hallway.
However, it was not until 12:50 pm that the classroom in which the gunman was shooting was broken into with a janitor’s keys. That’s when the gunman was fatally shot.
At a news conference Friday afternoon, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said he was “furious” after being “misled” about initial reports of the police response to the shooting.
Investigators must “get to the exact seconds of what happened with 100 percent accuracy and explain it to the public and, more importantly, to the victims who have been devastated,” the governor said.
Abbott insisted police will get to the bottom of why responding police didn’t take more aggressive steps to “eliminate” the killer.
“There will be ongoing investigations detailing exactly who knew what, when, who was in charge and what strategy (was used), why was that particular strategy used, why weren’t other strategies used? he said.
“The bottom line would be, why didn’t they choose the strategy that would have been better to get in there to eliminate the killer and rescue the children?”
Among the starkest revelations revealed Friday by McCraw:
- A school resource officer was no longer stationed at the school. When he arrived at the scene, he inadvertently passed the shooter, who was crouching next to a car.
- The back door of the school the gunman entered had been opened by a teacher earlier that day.
- A student in room 112 called 911 at 12:03 pm She called back several times. At 12:16, she said there were “eight to nine students alive,” McCraw said.
- At least two children called 911 for help. They survived the shooting, McCraw said.
- McCraw said the commander on scene believed “this was a barricaded subject situation” and did not believe there were “more children at risk.”
- 58 magazines were recovered. Three were found on the body of the shooter, two were found in room 112 and six were found in room 111. Another five were found on the ground and one was on the rifle the gunman was holding.
- The shooter asked his sister to buy him a gun in September 2021 and she refused.
- The gunman made several alarming posts on Instagram. In a four-person group chat in March, he made comments about buying a gun.
- On March 14, he posted on Instagram “10 more days.” When asked by a user if she was going to shoot up a school, she said, “No. Stop asking silly questions and you’ll see.”
McCraw was overwhelmed by reporters who demanded an explanation about the time delay in the classroom violation.
“The decision was made that this was a barricaded subject situation, there was time to retrieve the keys and wait for a tactical team with the team to go ahead and break down the door and take charge of the subject at that point,” he explained. “That was the decision, that was the thought process at that particular moment.”
When asked how he was doing, McCraw broke down.
“Forget how I’m doing it. What about the parents? And those children? he said. “Every time something tragic like that happens, we want to know why it happened and how we can do better next time.”
Texas law enforcement officials have come under intense scrutiny for their handling of the attack after it was revealed it took more than an hour to apprehend the shooter.
Authorities said Thursday that responding officers waited for backup before entering as the gunman was hiding in a classroom, a move one expert called “disgusting.”
They also revealed that the gunman was not confronted by a school police officer upon arrival and entered the building unhindered. Police previously said a school resource officer had confronted the shooter before he entered the building. Black, Asian and Latino communities have been attacked. Tuesday’s shooting has torn at the heart of the tight-knit community in Uvalde, just an hour’s drive northeast of the Mexican border and home to a large Latino community.
And he has once again spurred the gun rights debate in Texas, a state with some of the most vigilant Second Amendment advocates in power.
This is a developing story. Please check for updates.
Reference-www.nbcnews.com