The commander’s decision to postpone a break-in at a Texas primary school classroom during this week’s mass shooting is a “wrong decision,” authorities said Friday. Nearly 20 police officers stood in the hallway outside the classroom during the attack on Rob Elementary School for more than 45 minutes before agents used a master key to open a door and confront the shooter, the Texas Public Security Director said. Stephen McCrow during a news conference.
The school’s commander, the school district police chief, believes 18-year-old Salvador Ramos was barricaded in a classroom in Uwalde during Tuesday’s attack and that the children are not at risk, McCrow said.
“He was convinced at the time that there was no longer a threat to the children and that the subject was barricaded and that they had time to organize,” to enter the classroom, McCrow said.
“It simply came to our notice then. That was the wrong decision, “he said.
Officers at the shooting site at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, May 24, 2022. Pete Luna / Uvalde Leader-News
Friday’s briefing came after authorities spent three days providing often conflicting and incomplete information about the 90 minutes between the shooter’s entry into the school and U.S. border patrol agents unlocking a classroom door and killing him. . During the attack, the attacker killed 19 students and two teachers.
McCrow said there was a burst of gunfire shortly after the shooter entered the classroom where he was killed, but that the shots were “sporadic” for most of the 48 minutes as police waited in front of the hallway. He said investigators did not know if and how many children had died in those 48 minutes.
During the attack, teachers and children repeatedly called 911 for help, including a girl who begged, “Please send police now,” McCrow said.
Contrary to earlier statements by officials, a police officer from the school district was not inside the school when the shooter arrived. When the officer responded, he unconsciously walked past the shooter, who was crouched behind a car parked outside, and fired at the building, McCrow said.
The motive for the massacre – the deadliest school shooting in the country since Newtown, Connecticut, nearly a decade ago – remains under investigation, with authorities claiming the shooter had no known criminal or mental history.
Children flee the shooting scene at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, 2022. Uvalde Leader-News
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