Police had enough officers at the site of the Uwalde school massacre to stop the shooter three minutes after he entered the building, and they never checked the classroom door to see if it was locked, the state police chief said. Texas on Tuesday, saying law enforcement response was an “absolute failure.”
Instead, gunmen stood and waited in the school hallway for nearly an hour while the shooter carried out the May 24 attack on Rob Elementary School, killing 19 children and two teachers. The 18-year-old shooter used a semi-automatic rifle type AR-15.
“I don’t care if you wear flip-flops and Bermuda shorts, you come in,” said Col. Steve McCrow, director of the Texas Public Safety Department, in fierce testimony during a hearing in the U.S. Senate.
It turned out that the classroom door could not be locked from the inside, but there were no indications that officers tried to open it while the shooter was hiding, said Colonel Steve McCrow, director of the Texas Public Safety Department. testimony at a hearing in the U.S. Senate. Instead, he said, police were waiting for a key.
“I have good reason to believe she was never safe,” McCrow said of the door. “How about you try the door and see if it’s locked?” Delays in law enforcement response have become the focus of federal, state and local investigations.
Texas official testifies sharply, criticizing law enforcement response to Uwalde shooting 01:20:29
McCrow turned to Pete Aredondo, the head of the Uwalde police school district, who was in charge, saying: “The only thing stopping the corridor of dedicated officers from entering rooms 111 and 112 was the commander of the scene, who decided to put his life on hold. of officers before the lives of children. “
“Obviously, not enough training was done in this situation, simply and clearly. Because the commander on the ground made terrible decisions, “McCrow said. He said investigators had failed to “re-interview” Aredondo.
The head of public safety presented a schedule according to which three police officers with two rifles entered the building less than three minutes after the shooter. Minutes later, several more police officers entered.
Police ‘decision to abstain runs counter to much of what law enforcement has learned in the two decades since the 1999 Columbine High School shooting in Colorado that killed 13 people, McCrow said.
“You’re not waiting for a SWAT team. You have one officer, that’s enough,” he said. He also said police officers should not wait for the shields to enter the classroom. The first shield arrived less than 20 minutes after the shooter entered, according to McCrow.
In addition, eight minutes after the shooter entered, a police officer said police had a “hooligan” lever that they could use to break down a classroom door, McCrow said.
Using a chart from Rob Elementary School in Uwalde, Texas, Texas Public Safety Director Steve McCrow testified at a hearing in the Texas Senate in the state capital on Tuesday, June 21, 2022, in Austin, Texas. Eric Gay / AP
State police initially said the gunman entered the school through an outside door that had been opened by a teacher. However, Macro said the teacher had closed the door, but without her knowing, it could only be locked from the outside. The gunman “went straight,” McCrow said.
The gunman knew the building well after attending fourth grade in the same classrooms where he carried out the attack, McCrow said. The gunman never spoke to police that day, the public safety chief said.
Texas Sen. Paul Betancourt said the whole premise of blocking and training shooters is useless if the doors can’t be locked.
Betancourt challenged Aredondo to testify publicly and said he should have resigned immediately. He angrily pointed out that shots were heard as police waited in the hallway.
“There have been at least six shots during that time,” he said. “Why is this man shooting? He’s killing someone. But this incident commander finds every reason to do nothing.”
McCrow spent nearly five hours offering the clearest picture of the massacre to date, outlining a series of other missed opportunities, communication breakdowns and errors based on an investigation that included approximately 700 interviews. Among the errors:
- Aredondo had no radio with him.
- The police and sheriff’s radios did not work at the school. Only the radio stations of the border guards at the scene did it and they did not work perfectly.
- Some school charts that police use to coordinate their response were wrong.
Questions about law enforcement response began days after the massacre. Macro said three days after the shooting that Aredondo made the “wrong decision” when he chose not to storm the classroom for more than 70 minutes, even when trapped fourth-graders in two classrooms desperately called 911 for help and tortured parents prayed in front of the school. employees to get inside. Aredondo later said he was not considered responsible and suggested that someone else had taken control of law enforcement response. He rejected repeated requests for comment from the Associated Press. As for the time that elapsed before officers entered the classroom, McCrow said, “It’s unbearable in an active shooter environment.” “It simply came to our notice then. That’s exactly what he did, “he said of the Uwalde police response.
Crosses adorn a makeshift memorial to the victims of the shooting at Rob Elementary School in Uwalde, Texas, on May 31, 2022. CHANDAN KANNA / AFP via Getty Images
Police did not find anything that was a red flag in the shooter’s school disciplinary records, but interviews revealed that he was involved in animal cruelty. “He was walking around with a bag of dead cats,” McCrow said. In the days and weeks since the shooting, authorities have given conflicting and false accounts of what happened, sometimes withdrawing statements hours after they were made. But McCrow assured lawmakers: “Everything I testified today has been confirmed.” McCraw said that if he could make just one recommendation, it would be for more training. He also said a “bag of traffic,” including a shield and door-breaking tools, should be placed in every state patrol car in Texas. “I want every soldier to know how to break through and have the tools to do it,” he said.
Families of those killed in the shooting have demanded responsibility from law enforcement after a US statesman from Austin posted a photo of armed police in a school hallway. The images reviewed by the newspaper show a time stamp made nearly an hour before the shooter was stopped.
Several members of the victims’ families made emotional pleas during a school board meeting on Monday to fire Aredondo.
“We were failed by Pete Aredondo,” said Brett Cross, uncle and guardian of the victim, Uzia Garcia. “He has ruined our children, teachers, parents and the city, and by keeping him in your team, you all continue to deceive us.”
“My mother died defending her students. But who defended my mother?” said Liliana Garcia, daughter of Irma Garcia, one of two teachers who died trying to protect her students.
A senior deputy sheriff told The New York Times that two police officers from the town of Uwalde also missed a passing chance to shoot the shooter before he entered the school.
Unidentified officers, one of whom was armed with an AR-15-style rifle, said they were afraid of hitting children playing on the fire line in front of the school, Deputy Chief Ricardo Rios of nearby Zavala County told the newspaper.
School shooting in Uwald, Texas
More more
Add Comment