Nearly a month after the massacre at an elementary school in the US state of Texas, more dramatic mistakes in the police operation are known. Just three minutes after the gunman entered a classroom and opened fire, nine police officers were outside the room. Two of them had weapons. Still, they initially remained inactive, as the Texas security chief described during a hearing (see also video above).
According to current knowledge, the door to the classroom was not even locked, Steven McCraw reported in the Texas Senate. Gradually more officers arrived, but none of the officers present simply tried to open the door. Instead, the operations manager waited for reinforcements, more weapons and protective equipment – and for a key to the classroom “that was never used”.
“Have a duty to intervene”
None of that was necessary, the director of the Texas Public Safety Agency argued. In such a situation, when in doubt, a police officer with a gun is enough to go in and stop the shooter – even if it poses a risk to the officer. “Once you get there, you have a duty to intervene immediately and stop the shooter,” McCraw said.
An 18-year-old gunman shot and killed 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in the small Texas town of Uvalde in late May. The attacker shot the children and teachers in two connected classrooms with an assault rifle.
“serious failure”
The police officers outside the room had weapons, protective gear and training for such situations, but the kids had none, McCraw said. Nevertheless, the students and teachers had to wait “an hour, 14 minutes and eight seconds” for emergency services to enter the room to rescue them. “That is unbearable.” The operations manager made “terrible decisions”. He decided to put the lives of police officers above the lives of children. McCraw spoke of “wretched failure”.
The head of the authorities thus confirmed what had become known shortly after the crime: although the police called the police several times from the inside out of desperation, the officers in front of the classroom did not make any burglary attempts for a long time. It wasn’t until more than 75 minutes after the assailant started firing that emergency services entered the room and killed him.
Source: Krone
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
