Surveillance video shows a scene at Robb Elementary School outside a pair of connected classrooms where a gunman was holed up in Uvalde, Texas last month. Minutes later, officers entered the classrooms, to the left, right past the divider in the hallway. Visible are officers from the State Police, the Sheriff’s Department and the Border Patrol. (New York Times)
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At a state Senate hearing Tuesday morning, Col. Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, called the Uvalde response by law enforcement an “abject failure”.

“There is compelling evidence that the law enforcement response to the attack at Robb Elementary was an abject failure and antithetical to everything we have learned over the last two decades since the Columbine massacre,” an emotional McCraw testified before legislatures.

According to McCraw and law enforcement sources, eleven officers were inside Robb Elementary three minutes after the gunman entered the building. It would be over an hour before the gunman was killed by police, after he had massacred 19 children and two teachers.

(Image from Austin-American Statesman)

Images show Uvalde officers inside classroom minutes after shooter entered

A new image, obtained by the Austin-American Statesman, shows multiple officers in the hallway at Robb Elementary less than 20 minutes after the gunman entered the school equipped with rifles and a ballistic shield. They did not try to enter the room where the gunman was inside until an hour later.

“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 said. The on-scene commander was Uvalde school district police chief Pete Arredondo.

“The officers had weapons, the children had none. The officers had body armor, the children had none. The officers had training, the subject had none.”

 Arredondo and local authorities have faced intense criticism over the length of time in their response to confronting the shooter. So far no law enforcement personnel have been disciplined or held responsible for the inaction, despite new information showing initial reports made by authorities were completely wrong.

The City of Uvalde and its police department hired a private law firm to try and prevent the release of bodycam footage and other information pertaining to the shooting. 

 This article will be updated as more information is made available to the public.

Mike Creef is a fighter for equality and justice for all. Growing up bi-racial (Jamaican-American) on the east coast allowed him to experience many different cultures and beliefs that helped give him a...

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