"stunning police incompetence that bordered on cowardice"DPS Director Steve McCraw says officers in Uvalde could have taken down gunman within 3 minutes had commander not hesitatedDepartment of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw told a state Senate committee Tuesday that the law enforcement response to the Uvalde school shooting was an "abject failure" and police could have stopped the shooter at Robb Elementary School three minutes after arriving were it not for the indecisiveness of the on-scene commander, who placed the lives of officers before those of children.
McCraw said the inexplicable conduct by Uvalde school district police Chief Pete Arredondo was antithetical to two decades of police training since the Columbine High School massacre, which dictates that officers confront active shooters as quickly as possible.
“The officers had weapons; the children had none,” McCraw said. “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.”
The revelations detailed by McCraw completed a remarkable shift in the police response narrative state officials have given since the May 24 shooting.
Twenty-seven days after Gov. Greg Abbott said the shooting “could have been worse” but for officers who showed “amazing courage by running toward gunfire,” his state police director described stunning police incompetence that bordered on cowardice.https://www.texastribune.org/2022/06/21/texas-dps-mccraw-uvalde-school-shooting/