It was the “wrong decision” not to storm the classroom where a gunman was locked up killing primary school children, a Texas official admitted.
Extraordinary admission took place Friday at a busy press conference in Uvalde, Texas, where parents have been demanding answers about why 19 students and two teachers lost their lives in the deadly emotion on Tuesday.
Some reports said it was up to an hour before a Special Border Patrol team killed the gunman. Parents had to be detained outside, desperate to get into school themselves to take action.
Questions are growing about the response from agents: live updates on the Texas shooting
Texas Department of Homeland Security director Steven McCraw admitted to reporters that there had been a mistake.
He said the commander at the scene had judged the situation at Robb Elementary School as “no longer an active shooter situation” and that instead they were dealing with “a barricaded issue”.
However, he added: “Obviously there were children in that classroom who were at risk and, in fact, it was still an active shooter situation.
“From the benefit of the retrospective, of course, it wasn’t the right decision, it was the wrong decision.”
Revealed: the complete chronology of the police response
“Not here to defend what happened”
At the press conference, he revealed that outsiders could hear “children calling for help” inside the school building.
A journalist demanded to know if Mr. McCraw, who sometimes seemed suffocated, had words for his grieving parents.
He replied, “What should I say to my parents? I have nothing to say to my parents other than what has happened.
“We are not here to defend what happened, we are here to denounce the facts.”
One reporter went further and asked if the parents should apologize, because not everything that could have been done was done.
“If you thought it would help, I’d apologize,” McCraw said.
“When you return to the timeline – I’m not advocating anything – but when you return to the timeline there was a bombardment of hundreds of rounds in four minutes in those two classrooms.
“Any subsequent shooting was sporadic, it was at the door.
“So the belief is that maybe no one is alive anymore and the subject is now trying to keep the application at bay.”
Salvador Ramos, who dropped out of high school, continued his murderous uproar after hinting to followers on his Instagram page that he could do something.
Read more: What social media posts tell us about Ramos
McCraw said the investigation had revealed a conversation in the days leading up to the shooting that read:
“The word on the street is that you’re buying a gun.”
“I just bought something. It’s a long way off.”
Then came this mysterious message:
“Ten more days.”
In response, someone had replied, “Are you going to shoot the school or something?”
Ramos replied, “No, stop asking stupid questions, and you’ll see.”
McCraw also revealed that 1,657 rounds and 60 magazines had been found at the school after the atrocity.