Police admitted a series of impressive failures, including driving directly through the gunman, in responding to the Texas school shooting while children were being massacred inside, with the head of the state Department of Public Safety saying that it was time to apologize for the wrong answer. it was over.
Friday’s press conference came after days of confusion, inconsistencies and a confusing chronology of law enforcement’s response to the commotion at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
Speaking about the delay in the rape of the classroom where the shooter was, the director of the Texas Department of Homeland Security, Steve McCraw, said that “from the benefit of the retrospective where I’m sitting now, of course, it wasn’t “The right decision. It was the wrong decision. There is no excuse for that.”
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“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 started firing in classrooms 111 and 112. At least 100 shots were fired. audio tests at that time, “he said.
Texas officer Steven McCraw said the on-site commander made the “wrong decision” during the attack. Credit: EPA
Just two minutes later, at least three policemen entered through the same door as the gunman. At 12:03 p.m., there were up to 19 officers in the hallway.
However, it was not until 12:50 that the classroom in which the gunman was firing was broken with the keys of a janitor. That was when the gunman was shot dead.
At a news conference Friday afternoon, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he was “livid” after being “tricked” into initial reports of a police response to the shooting.
Investigators must “get to the seconds of what happened exactly 100% accurately and explain it to the public and, above all, to the victims who have been devastated,” the governor said.
Abbott insisted that law enforcement will get to the bottom of why the police who responded did not take more aggressive steps to “eliminate” the killer.
“Will there be ongoing research detailing exactly who knew what when, who was in charge and what strategy (was used), why this particular strategy was used, why were no other strategies used?” He said.
“The conclusion would be, why didn’t they choose the strategy that would have been better to get into to eliminate the killer and rescue the children.”
Texas school shooting victims are remembered before a Houston Astros baseball game. Credit: AP
Among the harshest revelations revealed earlier Friday by McCraw:
- A school resources officer was not yet located at the school. When he arrived at the scene, he passed the shooter, who was crouched beside a car.
- The back door of the school the gunman had entered had been opened by a teacher in the early hours of the day.
- A student in Class 112 called 911 at 12:03 p.m. He called several times. At 12:16 p.m., he 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 at the scene believed that “this was a barricaded subject situation” and did not think there were “more children at risk.”
- Fifty-eight magazines were recovered. Three were in the body of the shooter, two were found in classroom 112 and six in classroom 111. Five more were found on the ground, and one was in the rifle that the gunman was wielding.
- 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 commented on the purchase of a weapon.
- On March 14, he posted “10 more days” on Instagram. When a user asked if he was going to shoot a school, he said, “No. Stop asking stupid questions and you’ll see.”
McCraw was overwhelmed with reporters asking for an explanation for the delay in classroom failure.
“The decision was made that it was a barricade situation, there was time to recover the keys and wait for a tactical team with the equipment to break down the door and take on the issue at that time.” , he explained. “That was the decision, that was the thought process at that particular time.”
Salvador Ramos was shot dead after a murderous murder. Credit: supplied
When asked how he was, McCraw broke up.
“Forget how I’m doing. What about parents? And these kids?” He said. “Every time something tragic like this happens, we want to know why it happened and how we can do better next time.”
Texas law enforcement has been heavily scrutinized for its handling of the attack after it was revealed it took more than an hour to stop the shooter.
Officials said on Thursday that responding officers were waiting for a backup before moving, as the gunman was locked in a classroom, a move that an expert described as “disgusting.”
They also revealed that the gunman did not confront a school police officer on arrival and entered the building unobstructed. Police said earlier that a school resources officer had confronted the shooter before entering the building. Black, Asian, and Latino communities have been targeted. Tuesday’s shooting has torn the heart of Uvalde’s united community, just an hour’s drive northeast of the Mexican border, and home to a large Latino community.
And it has rekindled the debate over gun rights in Texas, a state with some of the most vigilant supporters of the Second Amendment in power.