Texas shooting response was ‘wrong’ in Uvalde.
According to the top safety official, police made the “wrong decision” by failing to storm a primary school classroom in Uvalde, Texas, as a gunman killed 19 children inside.
“I would apologize if I thought it would help,” Steven McCraw said during a heated press conference on Friday.
Officers were hesitant to enter because they did not believe there was still an “active shooter” situation, he explained.
However, students inside made numerous calls pleading with police to come.
Mr McCraw confirmed that there was a 40-minute delay between the arrival of the police unit at Robb Elementary School and the decision to storm the classroom where the gunman had barricaded himself.
The senior officer on the scene decided to wait until the school janitor arrived with the keys because they believed that by then, either “no kids were at risk” or “no one was alive.”
The delayed response, combined with video footage of police tackling and handcuffing frustrated parents while the gunman was still inside the school, has fueled public outrage and scrutiny of how law enforcement handled the situation.
Authorities have also struggled to provide a clear timeline of what happened in Uvalde.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said on Friday that he was “livid” that he had been “misled” about certain information that he had made public earlier this week.
