Texas School Shooting: Delay in Breaching Classroom Was 'Wrong Decision,' Authorities Admit

Authorities admitted that the Texas school shooting had a series of failures, including the delay in breaching the classroom and how the police drove past the gunman.

In a news conference Friday, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw said the delay in breaching the classroom where the shooter stayed "was the wrong decision" and "there's no excuse for that." He added that "there were children in that classroom that were still at risk," NBC reported.

McCraw said as many as 19 police officers stood in a hallway outside of the classrooms during the shooting at Robb Elementary School for more than 45 minutes before agents used a master key to open a door and confront the gunman.

He noted that the on-site commander, who the Associated Press identified as the school district's police chief, believed at the time that there "was no more threat to the children" and they "had time to organize" since Salvador Ramos was barricaded in a classroom.

"Of course, it was not the right decision. But I wasn't there... I'm just telling you from what we know, we believe there should have been an entry at that... as soon as you can," McCraw said.

CBS News reported that authorities spent three days providing often conflicting and incomplete information about the 90 minutes that elapsed between the time the gunman entered the school and when U.S. Border Patrol agents unlocked the classroom door and killed the 18-year-old suspect.

McCraw also revealed that the gunman entered the school through the back door he found propped open at 11:33 a.m. and started shooting in classrooms 111 and 112. He noted that at least 100 shots were fired "based on the audio evidence at that time."

Two minutes later, three police officers entered the same door Ramos did. By 12:03 p.m., there were nearly 20 officers in the hallway, McCraw said. However, it was not until 12:50 p.m. that the classroom the gunman was shooting in was breached using a janitor's key.

McGraw further noted that an officer actually drove right past the shooter, who was hiding behind a vehicle before entering the building, and after a teacher called police to report that the gunman had crashed his vehicle in a ditch at around 11:30 a.m.

Texas School Shooting

McCraw noted that the chief of police of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District wrongly believed that the incident had changed from an active shooting to a situation where the suspect stopped firing and no longer posed a threat to children.

McCraw said the police chief thought there was time to retrieve the keys and wait for a tactical team with the equipment to go ahead and breach the door to take on the suspect.

According to ABC News, the Customs and Border Protection's tactical team arrived on the scene at 12:15 p.m. but did not breach the classroom until 35 minutes later at 12:50 p.m.

McCraw said there may have been a belief that the incident commander thought there was no one alive inside the classrooms. However, 911 calls from students and teachers revealed they were still in grave danger. It seemed that the information did not reach the officers on the ground.

McCraw noted that active shooter protocols dictate that officers find and target the shooter immediately, adding that one does not wait on tactical gear.

The Texas Department of Public Safety is doing a review of law enforcement actions as part of its ongoing investigation of Tuesday's massacre.

Texas School Shooter

An 11-year-old survivor of the Robb Elementary School shooting feared the gunman would come back for her, so she covered herself in her friend's blood and played dead. Miah Cerillo told CNN that she and her classmates were watching the movie "Lilo and Stitch" in a classroom shared by two teachers.

The teachers got word that a shooter was in the building, with one of them locking the door. Miah said the gunman was already right there and shot out the window in the door.

Ramos was reportedly a resident of the Latino community about 85 miles west of San Antonio. Officials said the gunman had lived with his 66-year-old grandmother since March.

Ramos' grandmother survived the shooting and sought help from neighbors. Nineteen young children and two adults were killed in the attack.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

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