UTD criminologist responds to Uvalde school shooting video
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - At 11:33 a.m., the gunman walks into a classroom at Robb Elementary School, armed with an AR-15. Then for two and a half minutes, shots are fired.
About thirty seconds later, the first group of officers arrive. Some approach the classroom and you hear an exchange of gunfire, then police retreat.
"It's very hard to know what's going through these officers' heads," said University of Texas at Dallas Criminologist, Tim Bray. "There were lots of different moving pieces and they didn't necessarily seem to gel at the same time."
Bray pointed out that for the next hour, more armed law enforcement in tactical gear continued to arrive in the hallway.
"And then there's quite a lot of time and decision making and positioning that goes on," Bray said.
At 12:21 p.m., you hear the gunman fire more shots, but it's not until 12:50 p.m. - thirty minutes later - that law enforcement heads into the classroom to take down the gunman.
Some on social media are outraged by this moment where an officer is seen grabbing some hand sanitizer and checking his phone.
"We know that after the Columbine tragedy some 20 plus years ago, the best practice emerged of really taking immediate steps to confront and eliminate an active shooter threat, but while it emerged as a best practice how every department implements that is going to be different," Bray said.
He said overall, it looks like there wasn't a clear, well-organized response strategy in Uvalde.
Bray said moving forward - law enforcement needs to figure out exactly what led to the decisions that were made so they can change the way they train and work together to prevent future tragedies.
