McCraw: commander at Uvalde school shooting 'placed lives of officers before lives of children'

UVALDE, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - The Director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, Steve McCraw said the law enforcement response to the deadly mass shooting in Uvalde last month went against everything they learned after the massacre at Columbine High School two decades ago. 

"There's compelling evidence that the law enforcement response to the attack at Robb Elementary was an abject failure," McCraw said.

He made his remarks Tuesday during a hearing held at the state capitol by the newly formed Texas Senate Special Committee to Protect All Texans.

McCraw didn't hold back as he described what happened in the days before the mass shooting on May 24, inside the school, and what officers did and did not do as they arrived on-scene. 

He insisted law enforcement could have targeted the 18-year-old gunman quickly. 

"Three minutes after the subject entered the west building, there was sufficient number of armed officers wearing body armor to violate, distract, and neutralize the subject," McCraw said.

Instead, McCraw told Senators that it took one hour, 14 minutes, and eight seconds for law enforcement officers, who were waiting in a hallway, to confront the shooter.

He had already fired 100 rounds of ammunition at students and teachers inside classrooms 111 and 112.

During the hearing, McCraw showed how the gunman entered the school through enlarged photos of the school's exterior and a map of inside the school.

McCraw blamed Uvalde ISD Police Chief Pete Arredondo, the on-scene commander.

As the Senate hearing went on, Arredondo was spotted entering an elevator at the Capitol after he testified at a House hearing held behind closed doors and out of public view.

Even as more officers, firepower and equipment continued to arrive at the school, McCraw said Arredondo kept delaying going after the gunman. 

"The only thing stopping a hallway of dedicated officers from entering 111 and 112 was the on-scene commander, who decided to place the lives of officers before the lives of children," McCraw said. "The officers had weapons; the children had none. The officers had body armor; the children had none. The officers had training; the subject had none."

He said the doctrine for active-shooter situations is clear: "Stop the killing and stop the dying." 

When he was questioned about it by a Senator later, McCraw was emphatic. 

"I don't care if you have flip-flops, wear Bermuda shorts, it doesn't matter, you go in," McCraw said.

McCraw said the gunman entered the school through an unlocked door. 

"On the exterior doors, the locks were working fine," McCraw said. "Someone did not lock that door."

He said they did not know who unlocked it.

Another exterior door to the school was unlocked as well.

McCraw said the classroom doors were also unlocked and could have only been locked if a teacher had used a key to lock it from outside the room. 

"There's no way to lock the door from the inside and there's no way for the subject to lock the door from the inside," McCraw said.

But he said Arredondo kept searching for a key to unlock the classroom door when they didn't need one. 

He said no one tried to open the door. 

"How about trying the door see if it's unlocked," McCraw said. "No one had." 

McCraw said there was enough equipment to have breached the door earlier.

Had the doors to the classroom been locked, he said the students and teachers could still be alive because officers had arrived quickly.  

"The three minutes would have made a difference," McCraw said. "We could have kept him out for three minutes. Those officers would have been in the hallway, and he could have never been in 111 and 112. He'd been dead."

He said schools need to be hardened more and law enforcement training needs to be improved.

McCraw said the gunman purchased two rifles and more than 2,100 rounds of ammunition in the days before the shooting. 

He also told Senators about a message the gunman posted on social media messaging ten days before the shooting. 

McCraw said the gunman wrote 'Ten days.' 

A person responded by asking the gunman if he had plans to shoot-up an elementary school.

McCraw said the gunman said, 'you'll see.' 

The person who received his message did not report it.

In addition, on the day of the shooting, the gunman messaged a 15-year-old girl in Germany saying that he planned to shoot his grandmother in the head. 

A short time later, McCraw said the gunman told the girl that he had killed his grandmother and was planning to shoot-up an elementary school.

Just ten minutes later, he fired the first shots at Robb Elementary School.

The hearing continued Tuesday with a long list of experts in school safety, police training, and social media testifying.

Testimony was expected to continue through midnight and will continue Wednesday morning with a list of experts in mental health and firearm safety set to testify.