Texas State Police Director Calls Uvalde Response 'Abject Failure'

The head of the Texas State Police on Tuesday offered a pointed and emphatic rebuke of the police response to a shooting last month at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, calling it "an abject failure" that ran counter to decades of training, reports the New York Times.
"The only thing stopping a hallway of dedicated officers from entering Room 111 and 112 was the on-scene commander," Mr. McCraw said. But the commander "decided to put the lives of officers ahead of the lives of children," delaying the confrontation with the gunman for more than an hour while he "waited for a key that was never needed."
Head of State Police Calls Response to Uvalde Shooting an ‘Abject Failure’ (New York Times)
Police were carrying radios that would not communicate. Classroom doors had locks that could not be secured from inside. And the school district’s police chief, Pedro “Pete” Arredondo, made error after error throughout the catastrophe, McCraw said, breaking with decades of accepted law enforcement practice by not pursuing the gunman sooner, writes the Washington Post.
Armed Uvalde officers waited for key to unlocked door, official says (Washington Post)
According to CNN, Don McLaughlin, mayor of Uvalde, Texas, visibly frustrated with the constantly changing information released about what happened, lashed out Tuesday, telling residents at a city council meeting he's tired of being kept in the dark about what evidence has been uncovered.
McLaughlin sharply criticized the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) and its leader, Col. Steven McCraw. The Texas Rangers, a DPS agency, are leading the investigation into the shooting and McLaughlin told residents he was upset that he and other city officials have never been briefed on how the investigation is going. He went on to say he thinks McCraw is making misleading statements to help distance the actions of the state troopers and Texas Rangers who responded to the shooting, writes CNN.
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