Uvalde shooting hearing: Police response was 'abject failure'

Texas Director of Public Safety Steven McCraw laid out a series of communications failures that exacerbated the decision-making missteps that hampered the police response to the shooting at Robb Elementary School.

McCraw confirmed previous reporting that Pete Arredondo, the on-scene commander, arrived at the school without a radio. Later, according to McCraw, local police and Border Patrol lost radio communication signals inside the school.

Those circumstances ultimately led Arredondo and others to begin communicating with dispatchers on their cellphones, McCraw said.

"Cellphones did work, obviously, inside the school," he said. "It’s just the portable radio devices that first responders had didn’t."

McCraw also said "there was no duress system throughout the campus," which caused confusion among those inside the building. The principal of the school did trigger an emergency alert system called Raptor, but the program did not appear to sufficiently inform those inside the school about the shooting.

"It’s not the same as a direct system," he said.

Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw walked through an updated timeline of events from the Uvalde shooting and read aloud from a transcript of police radio communications.

The transcript describes Uvalde school district Police Chief Pete Arredondo and other officers speculating on the status of those inside the classroom and painstakingly debating whether and how to breach the door.

Nearly an hour after the gunman entered the school, according to the transcript, an officer told Arredondo, "People are going to ask why we’re taking so long."

"We’re trying to preserve life," Arredondo replied, per the transcript.

Reviewing the timeline of the Uvalde shooting, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw, said that enough officers and equipment arrived on-site "within three minutes" of the gunman entering the school to "neutralize" him.

McCraw said the on-scene commander, Uvalde schools Police Chief Pete Arredondo, was the "only thing stopping" officers from breaching the classroom.

Arredondo, McCraw said, "decided to place the lives of officers before the lives of children."

In his opening statement, Texas Director of Public Safety Steven McCraw said his department’s ongoing probe has uncovered "compelling evidence" to suggest that the police response "was an abject failure."

"Three minutes after the subject entered the west hallway, there was a sufficient number of armed officers wearing body armor, to isolate distract and neutralize the subject," McCraw said in reviewing the timeline of events. "The only thing stopping a hallway of dedicated officers from entering room 111 and 112 was the on-scene commander, who decided to place the lives of officers before the lives of children."

"The officers had weapons -- the children had none. The officers had body armor -- the children had none," he said.

"One hour, 14 minutes and eight seconds. That's how long the children waited and the teachers waited in rooms 111 to be rescued. And while they waited, the on-scene commander waited for radios and rifles. Then he waited for shields. Then he waited for SWAT. Lastly, he waited for key that was never needed," McCraw said.