Texas police have admitted it was the “wrong decision” for officers not to enter a Robb Elementary School classroom in the town of Uvalde before a shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers on Tuesday.
State authorities are rushing to reconstruct the complex chronology of events surrounding Tuesday’s attack amid growing criticism from school parents and local residents about how long it took to end the massacre. , and conflicting statements about when officers first entered the school.
At a news conference Friday, Texas Department of Homeland Security director Steven McCraw acknowledged that officers’ hesitation to enter the classroom where the shooting was taking place was a mistake.
“Of course it wasn’t the right decision,” McCraw said. “It was a wrong decision, period. There is no excuse for that.”
He said the reason for the delay, which authorities believe allowed 18-year-old Salvador Ramos to kill students at the school without question for nearly an hour, stemmed from the belief that all children in the classroom they had already been murdered.
The perpetrator had fired hundreds of rounds of ammunition at the two classrooms in four minutes, McCraw said, which could have led officers to believe that “perhaps no one is alive anymore.”
He added that the school district police chief “was convinced at the time that there was no further threat to children and that the issue was barricaded and that they had time to organize with the right equipment”.
However, a 9-year-old survivor of the shooting told local news channel KENS 5 that police officers told students in the classroom to ask for help if they needed it. When a student called for help, following police orders, the gunman shot her.
Several children inside the classroom also called 911 for help starting at 12:03 p.m., while 19 police officers were in the hallway, McCraw said. Tactics and police did not break down the classroom door until 12:50 p.m.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told a news conference in Uvalde on Friday that he was “lively” because some of the information he had received from law enforcement officers earlier this week about the shooting had been passed on to Uvalde. journalists Wednesday was inaccurate.
Abbott said he “wrote detailed notes” after meetings with officials who based Wednesday’s press conference, but that details emerged later in the week that contradict those stories.
“As everyone knows, the information they gave me was, in part, inaccurate, and I’m absolutely free about it,” he said.
The details come when former US President Donald Trump will appear Friday at a high-profile National Rifle Association event in Houston, Texas.
Trump will appear alongside other prominent Republicans, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, and North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson at a group-led leadership forum. NRA pressure gauge.
Abbott had planned to speak in person at the event, but withdrew during the night to hold a press conference in Uvalde, where he announced support measures, including counseling and compensation for workers, for families in Uvalde. victims of the shooting and city residents. He previously recorded a video for the NRA conference.
“America needs real solutions and real leadership right now, not politicians and partisanship,” Trump said on a social media post explaining why he would keep his “long-term commitment” to speaking at the NRA convention. He added that “it will provide an important address in America.”
The NRA’s decision to hold its annual convention, which was postponed several times due to the coronavirus pandemic, has been controversial in light of the shooting.
On Friday, hundreds of people gathered outside the convention site in Houston with placards protesting the event. “I think it’s totally disgusting,” said Linda Bennett, who lives in the city. “It’s a disrespect to the whole country, especially to the families of Uvalde.”
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Tuesday’s massacre was the second mass shooting in just 15 days after a gunman killed 10 people at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, on May 14.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner has asked the NRA to consider postponing the event because a legally binding contract prevents the city from canceling it permanently.
“What I would say to the ANR, even though the city cannot cancel a contract because we do not agree with its position on weapons, the ANR can postpone it for a week or two to allow families bury their children, “Turner said. in a TV interview this Thursday.
Beto O’Rourke, the former Democratic presidential candidate who will run against Abbott later this year in the race for governor, has called for people who oppose armed violence to join him in a rally. in Houston on Friday afternoon.
O’Rourke interrupted Abbott and other officials at a news conference in Uvalde on Wednesday, accusing the incumbent governor of “doing nothing” to stop armed violence in Texas.
Texas Congressman Dan Crenshaw and State Sen. John Cornyn were also scheduled to attend the Houston conference, but they withdrew.