Texas Department of Public Safety director Steven McCraw at a press conference in Uvalde on May 27. Photo: Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images The law enforcement sideshow to the school shooting in Texas continues to unfurl a week after the attack in Uvalde that killed 19 young children and two adults.
On Tuesday, ABC News reported that the Uvalde Police Department and the Uvalde Independent School District police force are no longer cooperating with the Texas Department of Public Safety investigation into the shooting. The decision reportedly came soon after DPS director Col. Steven McCraw stated at a news conference on Friday that the local police decision to delay entering the classroom where the shooter locked himself in was “the wrong decision” and did not follow protocol.
McCraw explained that Pete Arredondo, the police chief of Uvalde schools who was the commander on scene, improperly identified the situation as one involving a barricaded suspect, not an active shooter. Due in part to this decision, more than a dozen officers inside Robb Elementary School did not enter the fourth-grade classroom for over an hour after the first officers arrived. During the standoff, at least one student called 911 from inside the classroom, asking to “please send the police now.
Though McCraw’s press conference seemed to set the record straight after days of contradictory and false statements from officials, some details of the attack are still be in flux. Officials initially reported that the gunman entered the school through an unlocked door, then that the door was propped open by a teacher to call 911. But on Tuesday, the Texas Department of Public Safety stated that the teacher, who has not been named, did close the door behind her, though it did not lock.
As the authorities in Texas squabble, the Department of Justice is investigating how they responded after a request from Uvalde’s mayor.