Texas DPS director says officers in Uvalde could have stopped gunman within 3 minutes

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Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw advised a state Senate committee Tuesday that police could have stopped the shooter at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde three minutes after arriving have been it not for the indecisiveness of the on-scene commander, who positioned the lives of officers earlier than these of youngsters.

McCraw stated the inexplicable conduct by Uvalde faculty district police Chief Pete Arredondo was antithetical to twenty years of police coaching for the reason that Columbine High School bloodbath, which dictates that officers confront energetic shooters as rapidly as doable.

“The officers had weapons; the children had none,” McCraw stated. “The officers had body armor; the children had none. The officers had training; the subject had none. One hour, 14 minutes and 8 seconds. That’s how long children waited, and the teachers waited, in Room 111 to be rescued.”

Arredondo, who testified in closed session to a House committee on Tuesday, told The Texas Tribune that after he and one other officer decided the doorways to the adjoining lecture rooms containing the shooter have been locked, the very best plan of action was to attend for extra officers, firepower, keys and a breaching instrument.

McCraw laid out a starkly completely different set of details: That officers with rifles arrived within minutes and the classroom doorways could not have been locked from the within. Reporting by The Tribune revealed that ballistic shields and a breaching instrument, referred to as a Halligan bar, have been additionally rapidly on scene.

McCraw stated although the state police are a far bigger company than the six-person Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District division, Arredondo was the rightful incident commander as a result of he was probably the most senior first responder who had quick jurisdiction over the district’s campuses. He stated Arredondo could have transferred command to a different company, resembling state troopers who arrived, however by no means did so.

Acting towards the orders of an incident commander throughout an emergency will be harmful and chaotic, McCraw stated, responding to a query about why his troopers didn’t take cost. But he stated the failure of 1 police company means all legislation enforcement carried out unacceptably that day.

“I don’t mean to be hyper-critical of the on-scene commander,” McCraw stated. “But those are the facts… this set our profession back a decade.”

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