In article <rul7nc$1vtl$1@neodome.net>
<governor.swill@gmail.com> wrote:

The head of the Texas Department of Public Safety said Tuesday
that Uvalde police could have stopped the mass shooting at Robb
Elementary within three minutes, calling their response an
"abject failure."

Testifying before a special Texas Senate committee hearing, Col.
Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety,
told lawmakers that "There is 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."

"Three minutes after the suspect entered the west building,
there was a sufficient number of armed officers wearing body
armor to isolate, distract, and neutralize the subject," he
said. "The only thing stopping a hallway of dedicated officers
from entering Room 111, and 112, was the on-scene commander, who
decided to place the lives of officers before the lives of
children."

McCraw on Tuesday again placed blamed on Pete Arredondo, the
Uvalde school district police chief, for deciding to put the
lives of officers ahead of children�s lives.

UVALDE SHOOTING: TEXAS DPS OFFICIALS BRING ROBB ELEMENTARY
SCHOOL DOOR INTO STATE CAPITOL AHEAD OF HEARING

His remarks are the first public comments McCraw has made
regarding the shooting since last month.

"The officers had weapons, while the children had none. The
officers had body armor, the children had none. The officers had
training, the subject had none," McCraw said Tuesday. "One hour,
14 minutes and eight seconds. That�s how long the children
waited, and the teachers waited, in Room 111 to be rescued. And
while they waited, the on-scene commander waited for radio and
rifles. And he waited for shields, and he waited for SWAT.
Lastly, he waited for a key that was never needed."

The classroom door, which Fox News Digital first reported was
physically brought into the state capitol for Tuesday's hearing,
was unlocked, but officers never even tried to open it, McCraw
said.

"We set our profession back a decade," he said.

McCraw testified that on video, he never saw anyone put a hand
on the door before the keys arrived. Yet, he said it turns out
the classroom door could not be locked from the inside.

The public safety chief began Tuesday by outlining for the
Special Committee to Protect All Texans a series of missed
opportunities, communication breakdowns and other mistakes.

McCraw said officers with rifles stood and waited in a school
hallway for nearly an hour while the 18-year-old gunman carried
out the attack using an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle.

Eight minutes after the shooter entered the building, an officer
reported that police had a "hooligan" crowbar that they could
use to break down the classroom door, McGraw said.

Nineteen minutes after the gunman entered, the first ballistic
shield was brought into the building by police, the witness
testified.

"It has been reported that he didn�t have a radio with him.
That�s true. He did not," McCraw said of Arredondo.

In addition, McCraw said police and sheriff�s radios did not
work within the school; only the radios of Border Patrol agents
on the scene worked inside the school, and even they did not
work perfectly.

Three days after the May 24 attack that left 19 children and two
teachers dead, McCraw publicly admitted that Arredondo made "the
wrong decision" when he chose not to storm the classroom for
more than 70 minutes, even as trapped fourth graders inside two
classrooms were desperately calling 911 for help and anguished
parents outside the school urged officers to go inside.

Arredondo later said he didn�t consider himself the person in
charge and assumed someone else had taken control of the law
enforcement response.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/texas-official-uvalde-classroom-door-
unlocked-shooting-officers-waited-keys