“It was the wrong decision.” The director of the Texas Department of Public Safety admitted this Friday that he was a mistake that more than a dozen officers waited outside a classroom door while a shooter killed children inside.
“With the benefit of hindsight, where I’m sitting now, of course it wasn’t the right call, it was the wrong call, there was no excuse for that,” DPS Director Col. Steven McCraw told reporters.
The admission comes days after 19 children around the age of 10 and two teachers were shot to death at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday.
At least 19 police officers waited outside the door of the classroom where the suspect was shooting because a commanding officer on the scene believed he was a “barricaded subject” and not an active shooter. He was wrong.
The decision of wait for more than an hour It came despite the fact that a 10-year-old girl had called 911 from inside the classroom, pleading with police to come to the scene quickly, McCraw said.
A protest against free access to guns, in front of the National Rifle Association Annual Convention, this Friday in Houston, Texas. Photo: BLOOMBERG
“Please send the police now,” the girl said. “I wasn’t there, but I’m telling you from what we know,” McCraw told reporters. “When there’s an active shooter, the rules change, he’s no longer a barricaded guy, you don’t have time,” she added.
harsh criticism
The official admission of the delay comes amid strong criticism from parents who, according to videos and numerous testimonies, were desperately waiting Tuesday for police to act as an 18-year-old high school student, identified as Salvador Ramos, carried out a butchery in a classroom fourth grade
After shooting his own grandmother, Ramos crashed his vehicle near the school, shot two passersby, and then entered the school through an unlocked door.
Police and officials outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, after Tuesday’s massacre. Photo: AP
The police entered minutes later, but backed away from the gunfire and called for reinforcements.. A tactical team of US Border Patrol agents entered and killed the gunman “approximately an hour later.”
Meanwhile, police evacuated students and teachers and unsuccessfully tried to negotiate with the killer, who stopped them with rifle fire.
The parents desperately waited outside and asked the security forces to enter the place. And several even offered to enter the school themselves.
At the news conference, which had tense moments, McCraw said: “What do I say to the parents? I have nothing to say to the parents, apart from what happened. We are not here to defend what happened, we are here to denounce the facts, so that they have the facts.”
Washington, correspondent
