Reuters reports:

Panicked children and teachers placed half a dozen calls to 911 emergency services from the Texas classrooms where a massacre was unfolding, pleading for police to intervene, while roughly 20 officers waited in a hallway for nearly an hour before entering the room, authorities said on Friday.

At least two children called the 911 emergency number from the two connecting classrooms after 18-year-old Salvador Ramos entered with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, according to Colonel Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety.

NBC News reports:

Police 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, with the head of the state’s Department of Public Safety saying the time for making excuses about the botched response was over.

The Friday news conference came after days of confusion, inconsistencies and a muddled timeline of law enforcement’s response to the rampage at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

Speaking on the delay in breaching the classroom where the shooter was, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw said that “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.”

CNN reports:

Chilling details continue to emerge about Tuesday’s mass shooting that left 19 students and two teachers dead at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

One of the young survivors told CNN that she and her classmates were watching a movie when the shooter entered her room and shot her teacher and many of her friends. According to officials, the shooter was in the school for up to an hour and had barricaded himself inside adjoining classrooms.

As all this was taking place, parents had joined dozens of law enforcement officers outside the school, desperate to know if their children were still alive.

The New York Times reports:

The gunman is believed to have entered the school through a door that had been left propped open by a teacher, according to Mr. McCraw. The gunman went on to fire more than 100 rounds. Over the next 78 minutes, more than half a dozen harrowing 911 calls were made, at least two of them from students, describing unfolding carnage inside classrooms and begging for the police to come.

As many as 19 police officers were in a hallway inside the school shortly after noon, but Mr. McCraw said they made “no effort” to breach the classroom door. Asked what he would say to parents, Mr. McCraw’s response was a mix of defiance and resignation. “What do I say to the parents?” he asked. “I don’t have anything to say to the parents, other than what happened. We are not here to defend what happened, we are here to report the facts.”

The Washington Post reports:

Police were reluctant to immediately engage with the gunman who spent an hour inside the elementary school in Uvalde, Tex., where he killed 19 children and two adults because “they could’ve been shot,” a lieutenant with the Texas Department of Public Safety said in a CNN interview.

“At that point, if they proceeded any further not knowing where the suspect was at, they could’ve been shot, they could’ve been killed, and that gunman would have had an opportunity to kill other people inside that school,” Chris Olivarez said.

The director of the Texas Department of Public Safety said, in hindsight, "it was the wrong decision" for the onsite commander to wait for a specially trained tactical team before trying to enter the classroom https://t.co/hV7stkKslg

— RTÉ News (@rtenews) May 27, 2022

 

Mike C • 3 hours ago

They expect teachers to do what their SWAT TEAM was too terrified to do.

Buford Mike C • 2 hours ago

That’s common logic amongst law enforcement types… suspects who panic deserve to be beaten or killed because they should have remained calm, but officers who injure or kill a civilian after panicking need to be forgiven because of the stress and danger associated with the job.

Nope.

Gigi • 3 hours ago

The Uvalde police department bragged about their “SWAT team” on their Facebook page earlier in the year. They did active shooter drills at local schools. Then when it mattered, they did nothing.

Buford • 3 hours ago

Worth noting… Texas loves to tell the federal govt to leave them the Hell alone when it comes to issues like legislating access to guns, yet when faced with a very real threat from an active shooter, these state and local law enforcement entities decided to stand by and wait for federal CBP forces to take out the shooter.

MrRobotoLA • 3 hours ago

Most chilling of all is he said that they have to do better next time. Because he knows there’ll be a next time.

DoctorDJ • 3 hours ago

Nowhere else. In. The. World.

(Yesterday’s NYT morning newsletter.)

Read more HERE: https://www.mediaite.com/crime/go-in-… “Bystanders outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas pleaded with law enforcement officers to rush the school as a gunman was inside, the Associated Press reported late Wednesday night. Separately, a video posted online – which appears authentic – purports to show onlookers yelling at police outside a perimeter around the school. An 18-year-old shooter murdered 19 children and two teachers at the school on Tuesday. Eventually, he was killed by a tactical unit from Border Patrol. An eyewitness named Juan Carranza told the AP that people outside the school shouted at officers to enter the school as the gunman was inside.” https://www.texastribune.org/2022/05/… “State leaders and law enforcement officers Wednesday laid out a broad but horrific sequence of events about the actions of the gunman who killed 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde a day earlier. Authorities also revealed that 17 more people were injured in the rampage. But many questions remained after a tense press conference Wednesday that addressed the circumstances that led up to gunman’s attack. About 30 minutes before he entered Robb Elementary School, the 18-year-old gunman shared messages through Facebook that he was going to shoot his grandmother, Gov. Greg Abbott told reporters. He then shot her in the face, confirming that in a Facebook message, Abbott said.” ***