Texas officials had contradictory accounts of Uvalde school shooting | USA TODAY

Texas officials, including Governor Greg Abbott, offered contradictory narratives over two days after the school shooting in Uvalde that left 19 students and 2 teachers dead.

RELATED: Texas police commit errors in response to Uvalde school shooting

With the attacker locked inside, a commanding officer decided this was no longer an active shooter situation, according to Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw. Instead, officers treated the shooter as a barricaded subject, a judgment that may have contributed to the decision not to break into the classroom immediately. “It was the wrong decision. Period," McCraw said. "There's no excuse for that."

Seventy-nine minutes passed between the time the gunman began firing outside Robb Elementary School and the moment police shot him dead. While police failed to act, 10-year-olds and their teachers were making frantic calls to 9-1-1.

Between bouts of tears, McCraw acknowledged that the decision was not only wrong but catastrophic. Having as many as 19 officers wait in a school hallway for more officers and equipment while students and teachers called 9-1-1 from inside the classroom could have cost lives.

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71 comments

  1. COWARDS, PERIOD. The police Chief who claims to have thought it was no longer an active shooter but a barricaded shooter needs jail time. Little girls were on the phone with 911 the entire time. Not only did he cost lives but he was complicit with murder. They’re all COWARDS!

    1. @dmoneyas24 give me a break!! The fact that there were children I side and calling 911 to report thier friends being killed..you Don’t stand around and wait..you Act. It would have saved many lives

    2. @michael i would put my money on it that the mother didn’t actually go into the same room that the shooter was actually shooting or she would be another person making the news for not making it. Also if doors have locks that are anchored in to the concrete you aren’t getting through with a battering ram. Let me ask you this would you want those officers open firing through windows possibly risking bullets hitting the kids or swarm the shooter?

    3. @Cole Keenan i said i was done but i can’t help point out you provided a solution while trying to make bad excuses. Break windows, swarm shooter. Game over. Their inactions are unforgivable.

  2. The police waited too long didn’t go in, wouldn’t let the parents help their kids and then lied about it to make themselves look better than reality. This is criminal.

    1. @John Wayne Exactly. Everybody wants to point fingers but they are pointing them in the wrong directions.

  3. “It could’ve been worse” bruh what!!! That is the worst… children died! Even if only one or 100, a gunman in school will always be the worst it get…

    1. It could be worse is not the right word because a lot of innocent people died

      It could be better is the right word because nobody would die if those cowards wouldn’t wait too long to get in.

    2. He’s literally not wrong it could have been worse especially if they have allowed all of those parents to storm that building it wuld have ended in a bigger massacre.

  4. The only quick response from police was to attack the parents who were begging those officers to go in and save their children. That’s it.

    1. I’m afraid the cops had a budget problem. Those kids picked a bad time to get shot at. If they had done it at the beginning of the fiscal year, no problemo.

  5. It could’ve been worse? It could’ve been a NON-EVENT if the authorities had done what they were SUPPOSED to do BEFOREHAND.

    1. I don’t know how y’all aren’t seeing this but if one crazy guy with a gun managed to keep a whole department from entering the school. What’s stopping us from having 1-5 armed and trained guards protecting the schools in America

    2. A teacher left a door open..she should be charged. That would have been a NON EVENT

    3. @Mike Pumps And, arm all the children, stop and search all who dare to enter… Oh, and burn any book that says otherwise.

  6. The only lives they saved was their own. Quit sugar coating the failure of everyone involved. It diminishes the lives and families who paid the ultimate price. Shame on us all.

  7. I truly never thought that the police officers in Texas would leave children to fight off a crazed individual with a gun, while ya’ll waited outside fully armed. You let these children and their parents down.

    1. @Pepe Lepoo Did I say that I agreed with what the Supreme Court said? No, I didn’t. I was just stating facts.

    2. They play tough until someone has the means to harm them then they hide like cowards. Kind of like school bullies when you stand up to them and fight back they often get scared.

    3. @Joe Narbaiz even from that ruling when does preventing or protecting stop and stopping an active or arresting someone guilty of red handed murder start. After the first child, the second, how many……

  8. A mother of two students at the school was placed in handcuffs by officers for attempting to enter the school . When released from the handcuffs, she jumped the fence and retrieved her children, exiting before police entered . This woman is awesome . She will be known as a hero to her children forever . 🤘
    My condolences to all the families for this heartbreaking tragedy .

    1. @Alundrinus Ordway you get your own first indeed. It’s not selfish at all. Glad your not a parent or mine. Geezuss do eat pot pies for nutrition?!😂

    2. @Donnie Trussel Donnie, I read the article and still have questions. The reason I have questions is the article talks about a school security officer in the building who may or may not have exchanged gun fire with the suspect. McCray, head of police for the school district, said this morning at his news conference there was no resource officer at the school at the time of the shooting. I continue to reserve judgement.

  9. First off the police department took way too long to get there bottom line so I am blaming them R.I.P. to all the baby angels and praying for all the families I have a daughter myself I would have lost it

  10. If I was a parent with a child in that school, I thank god that I’m not, I wouldn’t want to hear it could have been worse. I’m so sad for the children and families that have been impacted by this.

    1. @That One Chic You’re acting like that’s uncommon though…. Maybe it is where you live, but there are SEVERAL schools that don’t have security or police working and present at the school 24/7 during school hours. I’m sure it just depends on the area, but even if there are police at the school, it’s impossible for them to be in every part of the school at the same time so there will always be unsupervised areas of any large building that doesn’t have maximum protection… No one tried to stop him only because no one could have known that was his intention prior to him entering the school….. They also literally said that no one tried to stop him from entering because it was an unsecured door and NO ONE was there to stop him….. If someone were there to stop him then we’d be having a different conversation I’m sure….. The basic point of my reply was that if teachers are allowed to carry then surely there would have been some armed teachers that could engage and that should be the first level of defense against these issues, but they won’t allow legal guns to be carried by trained folks inside of schools except for law enforcement….. THAT needs to change because we can’t just rely only on police to save our lives…. That was my point…

    2. @burn1n09 and yes I am agreeing with your second half. If they do allow teachers to carry they 100% need intensive training (hell most people who own guns shouldn’t even own them w how lax the trainings can be. This is from someone who lives in an area where ppl can buy rifles in walmart and certification is extremely lenient)

  11. The local police for Uvalde, were recently trained for an active shooter scenario. Did they all pass or failed that class? Were they trained by a professional? Was the trainer paid for that job?

    1. @Codisrocks they didnt it’s been said they didnt they are trained to rush the shooter no matter what for the sake to save lives

    2. @ToscadonRock maybe that’s just so they can say that. Every think about that? What incentive do they have to do anything but protect themselves?

    3. @Astro Gremlin oh they definitely need to be in a closed room with the parents. Take away their useless weapons first though.

  12. “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
    The defense and protection for you is you

  13. Now you will see them try to weasel- talk their way out of what they did. Everyone involved needs to be fired at the least.

    1. Including the governor for his sloppy law making to allow an 18yr old to purchase the war weapons!

  14. The politicians hire evil bullies to be policemen.
    You can’t expect bullies to have the courage and fortitude to help others in danger

  15. To serve and protect huh?? They did NOT do that. This is the day you earn your pay and they sat around for almost an hour while children were being killed. It’s a disgrace to the badge they swore to uphold.

  16. “Quick response” are you kidding me? Quick to get in the building and wait around for an hour and do nothing. That is not a quick response.

    1. They got there in 4 minutes, then were sitting ducks against a person without body armor. It’s sickening

  17. “It could’ve been worse” is the worst possible thing someone could’ve said in this situation

    1. @Me Elvis Nope. But I got enough common sense to not run into a situation if there is potential of it making it worse.

    2. @Me Elvis now let me ask you. If you were to run into the school to save your kids and got others kids killed in the process how would you feel as a parent?

    3. @Captin Undies If that was you as a parent and your kid was inside and the cops weren’t doing anything to save your child, how would you react?

    4. @Captin Undies Your point is moot. I don’t know if you watch real news or 🦊 News, but the TEXAS DPS director admitted that the cops shouldn’t have waited for one hour to enter the school. Cops are trained to enter the premises once they hear gunfire. Had the Uvalde cops done their job, the parents of the school children wouldn’t have reacted the way they did.

  18. The officers that responded should be fired at a minimum and someone should look into filing charges on them. Charge them one count of murder for every child and teacher killed. Waited an hour to do anything and forced parents to listen to their kids die. Absolutely disgusting cowardly response by a pathetic police department.

    1. @linda.p. for what it is not cops jobs to protect people. Go look it up it was decided by the supreme county in 2 cases

    2. @Blues fan NO, that went out the window when they stopped those who WERE willing to die to save their children from doing so under threat of death

  19. “It could have been worse” yeah try saying that to the families who’s kids died

  20. Every single 10-year-old needs and relies on adults for care and protection. You lulled them into trusting the police and then failed them in every single way possible. Not just failed, actively made it worse. You are responsible for those innocent lives taken and the trauma that those children, teachers and parents have experienced and will experience the rest of their lives. Everyone from Abbott down needs to rot in prison for this. Throw Ted Cruz in there, also, smiling & waving after being confronted about this. “It could’ve been worse.” I have never been so horrified.

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