A news conference was held this Friday where e the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety said that the incident commander in charge of the initial response made the ‘wrong decision’ not to breach the classroom sooner.
“From the benefit of hindsight where I’m sitting now, of course, it was not the right decision,” Col. Steven McCraw said. “It was a wrong decision. There’s no excuse for that. But again, I wasn’t there, but I’m just telling you from what we know. We believe there should have been an entry as soon as you can. When there’s an active shooter, the rules change.” Initially, the on-site commander believed the gunman was barricaded in a classroom during Tuesday’s attack and that the children were not at risk, McCraw explained. It was said that nearly 20 officers were in a hallway outside the classrooms for more than 45 minutes before Border Patrol agents used a master key to get access to the classroom and confront a gunman, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, McCraw said.
While speaking to the press, McCraw became emotional, as he appeared to be filled with regret: “Forget about me or the officers and stuff like that,” McCraw said. “We take an oath to uphold the law and protect people and anytime something tragic like this, we want to know why it happened, and if we can do better next time. There’s a bottom line and call it like it is. It is tragic.” This comes as families were outraged at the response time of the officers.
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As we previously reported, the result of this led to 19 children killed as well as two teachers. Ramos was killed at about 12:58 p.m. Tuesday according to law enforcement radio chatter, ending the horrid event that began with the shooting of his grandmother in her home.
The mother of the sick teen has since spoken out to as for forgiveness from the families impacted by this tragedy: While speaking with CNN affiliate Televisa, the mother, Adriana Martinez, becomes emotional as she tries to explain what made her son carry out the horrific attack. She said, “o don’t know what he was thinking. He had his reasons for doing what he did. And please don’t judge him. I only want the innocent children to forgive me.” Martinez then shared a message to the families: forgive me, forgive my son. I know he has his reasons.
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