Steve McCraw from the Texas Department of Public Safety testified in front of state lawmakers today. McCraw said that police’s response to Uvalde school shooting was an “abject success” and that it was based on the belief that the door to Uvalde was open. Officers waited for over an hour to enter the building.
Texas’s state police responded at Uvalde with the strongest possible condemnation. This is further evidence that two schools of children were left vulnerable by a string of bad decisions.
McCraw described McCraw’s decision to barricade the suspect as the shooter, calling it an “absject failure” and “antithetical to all we have learned in the last two decades.”
McCraw named Uvalde’s school district chief police officer Pete Arredondo as his on-scene command. “The only thing keeping a hallway full of dedicated officers and children from entering Rooms 111 and 112 wasn’t the on-scene leader who decided that the lives or safety of children was more important than the lives or safety of their officers.”
McCraw stated that the officers were armed. McCraw claimed that children didn’t have any weapons. The officers had body armour. Children had no such protection. Officers had received training. None of the subjects had any training. A total of one hour, fourteen minutes, eight seconds. This is how long the children and teachers waited to see if they could be saved in Room 111.
McCraw’s testimony is coming on the heels multiple Texas news media reporting contradicting Arredondo’s story of the massacre that claimed 19 children and 2 teachers were killed in May 24. Arredondo claimed in a Recent interviewWith It Texas TribuneThat he did not consider himself the on-scene commander, and that officers waited outside of the door due to outgunnedness and lack of keys or breaching tools to open the doors.
However, Austin American-StatesmanKVUE-TV reviewed footage taken in the corridors during the incident. reportedWithin 19 minutes of the gunman entering the school, officers arrived at the scene with guns and a ballistic defense. A Halligan bar, a tool that allows for breaching was also available to them. It Texas Tribune reportedIt found that no security footage reviewed showed officers trying to open the door.
McCraw said that McCraw had strong evidence to support the claim. You could try the door, and see if it is locked.
McCraw stated today that the police had the ability to stop the shooter in three minutes.
In dribs or drabs the truth of the massacre is so different from what was originally reported by police that older statements made by public officials are now considered absurd. Take Texas Governor. Gregg Abbot made these comments on May 25, one day after the massacre.
Abbot stated, “The fact is, no matter how terrible it was, it could have been even worse.” . “It wasn’t worse because the law enforcement officials did what their job requires. These officers showed incredible courage when they ran towards gunfire to try and save lives. They were able save many lives because they quickly responded to gunfire and got on the spot to eliminate the gunman.
Later Abbot claimed that he was being misled regarding the events.
As Bereavement reportedMonday saw state and local Texas agencies, from the Governor’s Office to the City Of Uvalde, prepare to respond to scores of requests for public records made by media outlets looking for information about the response of the police to the shooting.
McCraw said that Uvalde was a tragedy for the profession. They won’t be able to save their reputations if they continue to try to blame others and hide the facts about Uvalde.