Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw appeared before a Texas Senate committee on Tuesday to speak about the police response to the mass shooting atRobb Elementary Schoolthat killed19 students and two teachers.
As he spoke, McCraw was blunt, saying that the law enforcement response was “an abject failure” and claiming that police could have stopped the shooter within three minutes after arriving at the school.
“The officers had weapons; the children had none,” McCraw said during the hearing, which PEOPLE has been watching. “The officers had body armor; the children had none. The officers had training; the subject had none. One hour, 14 minutes and eight seconds. That’s how long children waited, and the teachers waited, in Room 111 to be rescued.”
McCraw placed the blame squarely on Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police ChiefPete Arredondo, who was the commanding officer at the scene — even though he later said that hehad no idea he was in charge. In his testimony, McCraw said that Arredondo placed the lives of his officers before those of the children.
On Tuesday, McCraw methodically laid out undisputed facts: officers with rifles were on the scene within moments, and the classroom doors could not have been locked from the inside.
Texas state troopers outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.Eric Thayer/Bloomberg via Getty
Surveillance video from the scene seems to indicate thatofficers did not even try to open the doors— which were likely already unlocked — and instead waited for more than an hour to receive keys to the classrooms.
“I don’t mean to be hyper-critical of the on-scene commander,” McCraw testified on Tuesday morning. “But those are the facts. This set our profession back a decade.”
The investigation into the police response is ongoing.
source: people.com
