Texas Department of Homeland Security (DPS) Director Steven McCraw denounced the Uvalde school police chief’s handling of last month’s shooting at Robb Elementary School and said some officers wanted to approach – the gunman earlier, including a school district police officer whose wife was killed in the massacre.
That agent, Ruben Ruiz, received a call from his wife, Eva Mireles, telling him she had been shot.
“He tried to walk down the aisle,” McCraw said Tuesday in a Senate hearing. “He was arrested and his weapon was taken out and he was heard out of place.”
Mireles later died in an ambulance on the way to a hospital.
Professor Eva Mireles, one of the victims of the mass shooting at Robb d’Uvalde Primary School, is seen in this undated photo obtained from social media. Eva Mireles’ family / via REUTERS
Although McCraw criticized the school’s police chief, Pete Arredondo, for not confronting the gunman earlier, several Texas senators pressured McCraw because DPS officers did not take charge. of the place of the facts.
“I seem to be hypercritical with the commander on stage, and I don’t want to be, but the facts are the facts, mistakes were made. That should never have happened,” McCraw told the State Capitol on Tuesday. of Texas. , accusing Arredondo of putting “the lives of agents before the lives of children.”
THE DOOR OF THE UVALDE CLASSROOM WAS UNLOCKED DURING THE SHOT THAT THE OFFICERS WERE WAITING FOR THE KEYS: “FAILURE OF THE OBJECT”
Law enforcement released the most detailed chronology of last month’s shooting in Uvalde, Texas, which left 19 children and two adults dead on Tuesday.
Nine officers, including at least two with rifles, entered the school at 11:36 a.m., three minutes after the gunman entered the school and began firing in classrooms 111 and 112.
Additional officers arrived with the first ballistic shield at 11:52 a.m., while two more shields were at the scene shortly after noon.
Despite this, Arredondo waited more than an hour for more firepower, tactical equipment and a key to open the classroom door, which was not necessary because the door was open all the time, McCraw said Tuesday. .
Video: Texas DPS admits mistakes made in Uvalde’s response
Several DPS agents and officers arrived at the scene a few minutes after the shooting, prompting special committee senators to wonder why they did not take control.
The story goes on
“When you get into this kind of situation, there are lives at stake. In 5 or 10 minutes, you know what’s going on. You know that whoever is in charge is not making the right decisions. You have to take over and take command of the State Senator Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa said on Tuesday.
THROUGH UVALDE: TEXAS DPS OFFICERS BRING ROBB PRIMARY SCHOOL DOOR TO STATE CHAPTER BEFORE HEARING
McCraw responded that the commander at the scene is “the officer of rank who has jurisdiction.”
“This is for practice and doctrine,” McCraw said. “The sheriff and the police chief of the Uvalde police department also postponed and said yes, he is the commander at the scene.”
At least one DPS special agent appeared annoyed by the lack of action being taken at the scene, according to updated chronology released by law enforcement.
“If there are kids inside, we have to go,” a DPS special agent repeated twice at 11:56 p.m.
An unknown agent replied, “Whoever is in charge will determine.”
More than 70 minutes passed before a Border Patrol tactical team entered the classroom and removed the gunman, a delay that McCraw called an “abject fault.”
“Three minutes after the suspect entered the west building, there were a sufficient number of armed officers wearing armor to isolate, distract and neutralize the subject,” McCraw said. “The only thing that stopped a corridor of dedicated officers from entering rooms 111 and 112 was the commander on the scene, who decided to put the life of the officers before that of the children.”
Arredondo, in his only public comments since the shooting, told The Texas Tribune that he was not considered the commander at the scene.
“I did not give any orders,” Arredondo told reporters. “I asked for help and asked for an extraction tool to open the door.”