The world is still processing the mass shooting that took place at Robb Elementary School on May 24th, leaving nineteen students and two teachers dead at the hands of 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, who also shot his grandmother in the face prior to heading out on his attack. As the families and community continue to mourn, more information about what exactly went down in the building is being revealed.
Earlier today (May 27) a news conference was hosted, during which Colonel Steven McCraw of the Texas Department of Public Safety admitted that local authorities didn’t handle the situation the way that they should have – more specifically, the amount of time it took for officers to engage with the gunman was longer than necessary.
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“A decision was made that this was a barricaded subject situation,” McCraw explained on Friday afternoon, giving insight into the commander’s (later revealed to be the school district’s chief of police) “thought process” as things were unfolding.
The chief’s strategy was to hold out on breaching the classroom and engaging with the gunman; he decided that “there was time to retrieve the keys, and wait for a tactical team with the equipment to go ahead and breach the door and take on the subject.”
While speaking to news cameras today, the Department of Public Safety rep said, “From the benefit of hindsight where I’m sitting now, of course, it was not the right decision. It was the wrong decision, period. There’s no excuse for that. But again, I wasn’t there.”
“We believe there should have been an entry as soon as you can,” McCraw went on. “When there’s an active shooter, the rules change.”
As CNN notes, officers first arrived at Robb Elementary at 11:44 AM, but it wasn’t until 12:50 PM local time that a tactical team was able to enter the room and kill the gunman, using keys from a janitor.
Check out the full press conference above, and tap back in with HNHH later for more news updates.
[Via]