Texas school shooting: Police made ‘wrong decision’ not to storm classroom sooner

Colonel Steven McCraw said that “in hindsight” the decision by the on-site commander to delay entering the classroom was the “wrong decision”.

Police, who waited at least 40 minutes for reinforcements before entering the classroom where a gunman killed 19 children, made the “wrong decision,” a police official said.

18-year-old Salvador Ramos butchered 19 children and two teachers at Robb Primary School in Uvalde on Tuesday morning.

The bloody massacre lasted about 90 minutes before he was finally shot by the police.

After days of mounting questions about law enforcement’s response, Colonel Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said “in hindsight” the on-site commander’s decision to delay classroom access was the “wrong decision.”

“That was the wrong decision. There’s no excuse for that,” he said.

“Looking back, from where I’m sitting now, there were clearly children in the room, clearly they’re at risk.”

Survivors of the shooting, including children, spent some time phoning 911 from the classroom after 18-year-old Salvador Ramos entered with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle.

But police officers stayed in the hallway outside the room, waiting for a specially trained tactical team and more gear, Colonel McCraw said.

He said the decision was made that Ramos was a “barricaded subject”, which contributed to officials not acting immediately.

Colonel McCraw added that the commander on the scene believed the incident had “moved from an active gunman to a barricaded subject” – despite pleas from schoolchildren in their classrooms.

Someone, whom McCraw did not identify, called 911 several times beginning at 12:03 p.m

They whispered to police that there were several dead and that “eight to nine” students were still alive, the colonel said.

A student called at 12:47 p.m. (local time) and asked the operator to send the police “now”.

According to McCraw, officers did not enter the classroom until 12:50 p.m. (local time) when a U.S. Border Patrol tactical team used keys from a janitor to open the locked door and kill Ramos.

Colonel McCraw commented that the timing of the incident likely meant that earlier police intervention may not have been enough to dramatically change the outcome of the shooting.

“You go back to the timeline … Hundreds of rounds were pumped into the room in four minutes, okay, into those two classrooms,” he told reporters.

“Look at what happened after that, it was sporadic and it was at the door.”

The Colonel’s words came after a schoolgirl was shot and killed by the Texas gunman.

The gunman fired more than 25 shots early in the attack, most times he fired, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety said.

The massacre, the latest in a year-long string of mass shootings, has reignited a national debate over the country’s gun laws.

President Joe Biden and his Democrats have promised to push for new restrictions despite opposition from Republicans.