During a Friday news conference, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw admitted, “to a stunning string of failures — including driving right by the gunman — in responding to the Texas school shooting while children were being massacred inside” and claiming “the time for making excuses about the botched response was over.” However, during his admission he tried blaming a teacher for leaving a door unlocked because it’s all about the doors and nothing to do about the guns.
Proving that hindsight is 20/20, McCraw spoke on the delay in breaching the classroom where the shooter still existed, he said, “from the benefit of hindsight where I’m sitting now, of course it was not the right decision. It was the wrong decision. There’s no excuse for that.”
“There were children in that classroom that were still at risk,” he added.
- A school officer drove right past the shooter while Ramos fired at the school.
- As many as 19 officers were inside the school more than 45 minutes before the suspect was killed.
the school district police chief decided not to breach the classroom where the shooter was. - A young girl from the class called 911 several times asking for police while authorities were right outside.
First officers entered school more than 1 hour before shooter was killed
11:33 a.m.: The shooter enters the school and begins shooting into a classroom, which is connected to a second class. He shot “at least” 100 rounds, McCraw said.
11:35 a.m.: Three Uvalde Police Department officers enter through the same door as the suspect. Another three Uvalde police officers and a county sheriff follow, McCraw said, for a total of seven officers on scene.The three initial officers went directly to the class door, which was closed, and two received grazing wounds from the shooter, McCraw said.
11:37 a.m.: Another 16 rounds are fired in the following minutes.
11:42 a.m.: A source close to a teacher receives a text saying there was an active shooter on campus. CNN saw the text chain and confirmed the timestamps.
11:43 a.m.: Robb Elementary announces on Facebook it’s under a lockdown status “due to gunshots in the area,” adding that “the students and staff are safe in the building.”
Roughly 11:44 a.m.: Officers are calling for additional resources, equipment, body armor, negotiators and evacuating students and teachers, Escalon said Thursday.
11:51 a.m.: More officers arrive on scene, McCraw said.
12:03 p.m.: Officers continue to arrive in the hallway of the school. “There’s as many as 19 officers at that time in that hallway,” McCraw said.
12:03 p.m.: A young girl from inside one of the adjoining classrooms calls 911, identifies herself and whispers the classroom she is in. The call lasted a minute and 23 seconds. She calls back several minutes later and says multiple people are dead.
12:10 p.m.: First group of deputy US Marshals arrives on scene to assist “federal, state, and local law enforcement already on scene,” the Marshals Service said in its statement.
12:13 p.m.: The girl calls 911 again, McCraw said.
12:15 p.m.: Members of the Border Patrol’s tactical unit, BORTAC, arrive on scene, McCraw said.(When Border Patrol agents began to arrive, the officer in charge of the situation had already made the determination that it was a barricaded subject situation, a source familiar with the situation said. The team then waited, not breaching the classroom where the shooter was holed up — until nearly 40 minutes later.McCraw said the person who made that decision was the school district police chief, calling it the “wrong decision,” not to engage with the gunman sooner.)
12:17 p.m.: Robb Elementary announces on Facebook that there is an active shooter at the school and authorities are at the scene.
12:16 p.m.: The girl calls 911 again and tells dispatchers there are eight to nine students alive, McCraw said.
12:19 p.m.: Another person calls 911 from one of the two classrooms and hangs up when another student tells her to, McCraw said.
12:21 p.m.: The suspect fires again. He was believed to be at the door, McCraw said.Law enforcement move down the hallway.
12:21 p.m.: Three shots fired are heard from another 911 call made.
12:36 p.m.: The initial student who called 911 calls again, is told to be very quiet and tells dispatchers “he shot the door,’ McCraw said. The call lasted 21 seconds.
12:43 p.m.: The young girl asks dispatchers to “please send the police now.”
12:47 p.m.: The student asks for police again, McCraw said. A minute earlier, she had said she could hear the police next door.
12:50 p.m.: Law enforcement breach the locked classroom door using keys from a janitor, McCraw said. They shoot and kill the suspect.
12:51 p.m.: Through the young girl’s 911 call, there are loud noises and officers can be heard moving children out of the room, McCraw said. The child goes outside and the call cuts off.
The suspect purchased and had a total of 1,657 total rounds of ammunition, McCraw said — at least 315 of them were inside the school.And 142 of those were spent cartridges.
