New reporting on the conduct of police at the start of the Uvalde school shooting, in which 19 students and two teachers were killed, throws into further doubt the accounts of officials, who claimed the officers moved quickly to neutralize the threat.
As KVUE ABC-33 in Austin reports, photos from interior security cameras show some of the first officers on the scene had rifles, not just handguns, as well as ballistic shields, 19 minutes after the gunman entered the school. This conflicts with the accounts given by officials after the shooting, that police were largely outgunned.
The Texas Tribune reports that those first officers on the scene did have more equipment than previously reported, but they lacked clear orders. Though they were in position to approach the classroom door, none did. None of the officers tried to see if the classroom door was locked. While the doors in that school are designed to lock when the door closes, many of the mechanisms in the school fail to either completely close the door or to lock.