A review of the various accounts of the mass murder of nineteen elementary school students and their two teachers in a classroom in Uvalde, Texas shows significant breakdowns in the reaction to armed law enforcement officers, the Associated Press reports.
In one of the most astounding issues, it took police between 40 and 60 minutes for police to go into the classroom where the shooter had locked himself in with the people who would be his victims. The shooter had locked the door behind him, and police had tried breaking into the room unsuccessfully. Only after getting a key from a school employee did the police get in; why they didn’t request a key earlier is unknown.
Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw characterized the fact that the shooter locked himself in the classroom where he slaughter more than twenty people as a victory for law enforcement: “The bottom line is law enforcement was there,” McCraw said. “They did engage immediately. They did contain (the shooter) in the classroom.”
Robb Elementary School was also staffed by an armed security officer who confronted the shooter before he entered the school. Officials offered different accounts about that encounter, with some officials saying the guard exchanged gunfire with the shooter and other saying he didn’t.
The presence of an armed guard at the school undermines conservative talking points that armed guards will prevent future school shootings. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Quintana Roo) believes the entire incident could have been avoided had a single back door to the school been locked. Cruz also advocates having locks on all classroom doors, a feature that prevented police from entering the classroom to try to stop the shooter.
Parents on the scene were so frustrated with the inaction of Texas police that they discussed among themselves charging into the school to save their children. “Let’s just rush in because the cops aren’t doing anything like they are supposed to,” a father whose daughter was killed said. “More could have been done.”
While Texas officials are worried about critical race theory being taught or acknowledging the existence of LGBTQ people in the classrooms, they’ve done nothing to stem the wave of mass shootings in the state. Texas leads the US with 26 mass shootings in 2022.