Uvalde massacre in Texas: a security official pins the local police
Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw presents the timeline of the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, during a hearing Tuesday, June 21, 2022, at the Texas Senate in Austin.
AP - Sara Diggins
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
The head of the Texas security forces was heard this Tuesday, June 21 by the Texas Senate's commission of inquiry in Austin on the Uvalde tragedy.
He directly went after the school district police chief who ordered to do nothing for more than an hour.
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From our correspondent in Houston,
Thomas Harms
"
There is overwhelming evidence that law enforcement's response to the attack on Robb Elementary School is an abject failure, unethical and contrary to everything that has been learned in two decades since the Columbine High School Massacre
.”
During his deposition, Texas security chief Steve McCraw did not spare law enforcement over the handling of the Uvalde shooting, which took place at Robb Elementary School: 19 children and 2 teachers were killed.
He said that in the minutes following the start of the shooting on May 24, the police had everything to intervene (including the necessary to break down a door), but that Pete Arredondo, the commander in charge that day, because arrived the first on the spot and being the most senior, rejected the order to act, until border guards take the initiative to intervene.
“
For 1 hour 14 minutes and 8 seconds the commander in charge waited for a radio, then weapons, then armored shields, then elite units, and finally he waited for useless keys
,” he adds. .
Several armed police officers were inside the elementary school with at least one ballistic shield at 11:52 a.m. on the day of the shooting.
They didn't enter the classroom for 58 minutes...and 21 dead later!
#Uvalde #Texas https://t.co/1fdnVoD3eo
— Sylvain Dubé 🇺🇦 (@syldube47) June 21, 2022
According to the investigation by the Texas authorities, this classroom door could only be closed from the outside, so it was not locked from the inside: "
The only thing that prevented a hall full of officers from the order forces to enter class 111, it was the commander in charge
".
Implicated, Pete Arredondo also testified on Tuesday, but in private before the House of Representatives.
He declined to comment upon his release.
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To read also: United States: the police increasingly criticized for their management of the Uvalde shooting
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