Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Friday that he was “misled” about the police response to the Uvalde Elementary School shooting, calling himself “furious.”
“The information they gave me turned out to be, in part, inaccurate”Abbott said.
The republican governor indicated that the facts of Uvalde must be investigated “completely and exhaustively”.
Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw admitted police made a “bad decision” by not rushing into the Uvalde school, where a gunman committed a massacre.
“Looking back now, it is clear that it was not the right decision. It was the wrong decision, period“, McCraw said, during a press conference, when asked about the delay in the intervention of the security forces.
At the scene of the massacre, 19 policemen were waiting for a Border Police intervention unit, more than 45 minutes after the gunman, Salvador Ramos, broke into the Robb School in Uvalde, Texas., on Tuesday, killing 19 students and two teachers. According to McCraw, the police chief at the scene believed that 18-year-old Salvador Ramos was barricaded in a classroom and that the children were not in danger.
The victims of the Uvalde shooter were all in the same room. Police smashed windows to evacuate students
“He was convinced at the time that there were no more threats to the children.that the shooter was dug in and they had time to organize” to enter the classroom, McCraw explained, admitting that was the “wrong decision.”
McCraw said US Border Patrol agents ended up using a skeleton key to open the locked classroom door where they confronted and killed Ramos.
The director of the Texas Department of Public Safety also said there was a shooting shortly after Ramos entered the classroom where he committed the massacre, but that the shooting was “sporadic” for much of the 48 minutes as police waited alongside. to the door. living room. McCraw said investigators don’t know if or how many children died during those 48 minutes..
During the attack, teachers and children repeatedly called the emergency number, 911, for help, including one girl who pleaded for the police to be dispatched immediately. But first officers didn’t arrive on the scene until 12 minutes after the shooting and didn’t enter the school to chase the shooter until four minutes later..
Inside, they were repelled by Ramos’ gunfire and hid, according to reports from the ongoing investigation. The gunman was still inside the room when the first special agents arrived, having traveled about 70 miles from the border city of Del Rio.
The crisis came to an end after a group of Border Patrol agents entered the school, engaged in a shootout with the gunman, who was hiding in the classroom, and shot him dead.
Source: Observadora
