Head of State Police calls response to Uvalde shooting an "abject failure"

[pnwmom]

Source: NY Times

AUSTIN, Texas -- The head of the Texas State Police offered a pointed and emphatic rebuke of the police response to a shooting last month at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, calling it "an abject failure" that ran counter to decades of training.

In his comments before a special State Senate committee in Austin, Steven McCraw, the director of the Department of Public Safety, said that just minutes after a gunman began shooting children inside a pair of connected classrooms on May 24, the police at the scene had enough firepower and protective equipment to storm the classroom.

But, he said, the on-scene commander "decided to put the lives of officers ahead of the lives of children." Mr. McCraw, speaking forcefully, said the same commander had delayed confronting the gunman because he "waited for a key that was never needed."

Mr. McCraw said that the doors to the classrooms could be locked only from the outside. “There’s no way to lock the door from the inside. And there’s no way for the subject to lock the door from the inside,” he said, adding that a teacher had made a request for the locks to be fixed, believing they were broken, before the shooting.



Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/21/us/uvalde-legislature-police-mccraw.html?campaign_id=60&emc=edit_na_20220621&instance_id=0&nl=breaking-news&ref=cta&regi_id=143355918&segment_id=96348&user_id=9394c14500233220daf04a352739c03f

[irisblue]

1. No shit.

From the cited article..."Steven McCraw, the director of the Department of Public Safety, said that just minutes after a gunman began shooting children inside a pair of connected classrooms on May 24, the police at the scene had enough firepower and protective equipment to storm the classroom.

But, he said, the on-scene commander “decided to put the lives of officers ahead of the lives of children.” Mr. McCraw, speaking forcefully, said the same commander had delayed confronting the gunman because he “waited for a key that was never needed.”

[pnwmom]

2. And he's officially acknowledging that the doors weren't even lockable from the inside. nt

[irisblue]

4. Bit more...

(Steven McCraw, the director of the Department of Public Safety,)
..."He said that the on-scene commander was the chief of the school district police department, Pete Arredondo, who was the highest-ranking person at the scene. The chief has said he did not consider himself in charge.
“If you’re going to issue commands, if you’re going to direct action,” Mr. McCraw said, “you’re the on-scene commander.”

He just called out Arredondo.

[Stuart G]

3. Thank You for Posting & Sharing With Us...K and R.. Outstanding Post & Link to NYT no text

[grumpyduck]

5. It wasn't an abject failure.

It was a fucking disgrace.

[ck4829]

14. Indeed

[riversedge]

6. NBC: Police 'put the lives of officers before the lives of children' during Uvalde shooting, Texas

Link to tweet

?s=20&t=VAi514wz1N85X0goPNEf_A

Police 'put the lives of officers before the lives of children' during Uvalde shooting, Texas official says
State Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw on Tuesday called the police response to the Robb Elementary School massacre an "abject failure."


https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/police-put-lives-officers-lives-children-uvalde-shooting-state-police-rcna33906




June 21, 2022, 10:17 AM CDT / Updated June 21, 2022, 11:36 AM CDT
By David K. Li

The law enforcement response to the Uvalde school shooting was an "abject failure" with police lives prioritized over those of children, a top Texas official said Tuesday.

The blunt assessment by Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, was made at a state Senate committee hearing investigating last month's mass killing.

"We do know this, there's compelling evidence that the law enforcement response to the attack at Robb Elementary was an abject failure and antithetical to everything we've learned over the last two decades since the Columbine massacre," he told lawmakers.
Officers had rifles 19 minutes after Uvalde shooting started: report
June 21, 202202:25

"The only thing stopping a hallway of dedicated officers from (entering rooms) 111 and 112 was the on-scene commander who decided to place the lives of officers before the lives of children. The officers have weapons, the children had none." ...........................................



Image: Robb Elementary School Uvalde
People look at a memorial for the mass shooting victims at Robb Elementary School on May 26, 2022. in Uvalde, Texas.Liz Moskowitz for NBC News

[heckles65]

7. What I can't get over is how

this was the NRA/gun owner Dream Scenario. Lots of guns. Lots of body armor. Lots of testosterone. And it's TEXAS, by God. Not a wussy defund-the-police liberal in sight. According to the Hollywood action movies Texas gun laws appear to be based on, within seconds the Good Guy In Charge should have yelled, "It's a go, take him out!" Blaze of gunfire, and the perp dies like a cornered rat.

Instead nothing, for almost an hour.

I mean as awful as it sounds, I'm finding this humorously ironic.

[LuckyLib]

8. Locks? All that gun power and they couldn't destroy the lock?

Tapping their feet waiting for a key?

All that macho power and nobody could figure it out?

[pnwmom]

10. They weren't locked out. There was no way to lock the door from inside the classroom.

So they didn't need to do anything more macho than turn the door knob.

[ck4829]

15. Crazy

[MarcA]

9. So what is going to be done to prevent it in the future? n/t

[hatrack]

11. Nothing. Nothing at all.

It's "God's Plan", don't you see? And if you don't believe me, just ask TX Attorney General Ken Paxton.

https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Life-is-short-Ken-Paxton-faces-backlash-for-17246448.php

[ck4829]

13. Good question

[ck4829]

12. Kick