Three minutes after the shooter burst in, 11 police officers arrived at Robb Elementary School, armed and equipped with bulletproof vests. But their leader waited 1h14 before ordering an intervention, waiting for reinforcements and a key to open the classroom which was in fact not locked. These are the main new elements revealed on Tuesday by the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, Steven McCraw, who denounced “an absolute failure” of the police. The decisions taken go, according to him, “against everything we have learned over the past two decades since the Columbine massacre”.
“The officers were trained, not the shooter”
“The only thing that kept a group of dedicated officers from entering rooms 111 and 112 was the on-scene commander who decided to put the lives of the officers before the lives of the children,” he said. he continued, targeting one of the police chiefs on the scene, Pete Arredondo. “The officers had weapons, the children did not. The officers had bulletproof vests, the children did not. The agents were trained, not the shooter, ”he said again.
Pete Arredondo had assured that the locked door of the classroom had delayed the intervention, an explanation questioned by Steven McCraw. “He waited for a key that was never needed,” he said. This official had already expressed a mea culpa in the days following the killing, believing that the agents should have intervened more quickly.