A Texas top cop broke down in tears as he explained why 19 Uvalde police officers didn’t storm a classroom where a gunman killed 19 children and 2 teachers on Tuesday.
Texas’ Director of Public Safety Col. Steven McCraw sobbed as he admitted 19 cops were in a hallway outside a classroom at Robb Elementary.
He said Uvalde’s Chief of School District Police Department Pete Arredondo told the cops not to storm the classroom because he thought everyone inside was dead.
At least two children and an adult called 911 pleading for help. But 19 cops stood outside and did nothing, as gunshots rang out inside.
The gunman fired more than 100 rounds within seconds of walking into room 112 at 11:34 a.m. Police did not enter the room until 12:50 p.m. 38 people were shot in classroom 112 and the adjoining room 111.
RELATED: Texas cop says police didn’t go into school because they could have been shot
“It was clearly the wrong decision,” said McCraw. “The incident commander thought at that time there was no more children at risk. Obviously there were children that were at risk,” he said.
“With the benefit of hindsight, from where I am sitting now – of course it was not the right decision. It was the wrong decision. There is no excuse,” McCraw said.
Chief Arredondo, a former 911 dispatcher, thought the gunman was shooting at the door, not at kids.
Doctors say the delay in emergency response cost many children their lives because they bled out while waiting for medical attention.
RELATED: Police ran into elementary school to rescue their own children
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott expressed outrage that he was “misled” by the Uvalde police.
“I was on this very stage two days ago and I was telling the public information that had been told to me,” he said on Friday. “As everybody has learned, the information that I was given turned out in part to be inaccurate. And I’m absolutely livid about that.”
Federal authorities were “flabbergasted at the amateurish communications coming from Texas,” said a federal source who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Rapper Iggy Azalea tweeted: “I’m so perplexed at the police saying they didn’t enter a school with an active shooter inside it because “they didn’t believe any children were at risk” Man with gun + school filled with children = RISK it’s an easy calculation to make.”
I’m so perplexed at the police saying they didn’t enter a school with an active shooter inside it because “they didn’t believe any children were at risk”
Man with gun + school filled with children = RISK
it’s an easy calculation to make.— IGGY AZALEA (@IGGYAZALEA) May 27, 2022
Uvalde police officers rushed into the school to save their own children while parents were tasered and restrained outside.
Literally. And the cop ADMITTED on a interview they went in to save their own kids and left others kids in there. That’s so selfish because as a cop you’re supposed to try to save every victim. Not just people you know.
— …. (@Zl7Qc) May 27, 2022
