
New details have surfaced about the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that has led to widespread criticism of the police's response to the incident from government and law enforcement officials.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott is reported to be 'livid', walking back his previous praise of the law enforcement response after having been 'misled' about the timeline of events in the incident. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick explained that state officials were 'not told the truth' by law enforcement as they attempted to review the incident.
According to Patrick, law enforcement officers have given conflicting accounts of the sequence of events when questioned by state officials, creating uncertainty about some things; for example, he says, state officials were told that a security guard had been present at the school when in fact there had been no guard present.
Fox News reports that there was a delay of as much as a full hour hold on the further response by the district police chief after police had arrived at the school, with the shooter already barricaded inside and still firing. Steven McCraw, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, explained that the incident commander may have assumed that the situation had gone from active shooting to barricaded suspect, lessening the danger to the rest of the school and prompting the delay in further action.
McCraw also told reporters that at least one patrol car may have driven past the suspect while he hid behind a parked vehicle.
"The decision not to move quickly against the suspect cost lives," LT. Gov. Patrick accused. "“Imagine the parent who has to go through this for the rest of their life, and they will be thinking ‘Was my child still alive and could have been saved?’ ”