The latest on the Uvalde school massacre investigation

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Texas Department of Public Safety Director Col. Steven McCraw confirmed his agency planned to eventually release footage from body cameras and the inside of Robb Elementary.

“Whenever the district attorney approves it, we are going to release all the body camera coverage, we’re going to release all the school video and the funeral video,” McCraw said when asked by State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, who represents District 19, including Uvalde, when DPS would release body camera data.

Before that happens, DPS will have to conclude its investigation, he noted, at which point the case will be handed over to Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Busbee, who will have the opportunity to review it.

The Texas Department of Public Safety has arranged for shooter Salvador Ramos’ grandmother to be interviewed, Col. Steven McCraw, department director, told the Texas Senate Special Committee to Protect All Texans.

“Unfortunately, she can’t talk right now. It’s very difficult. She lost her jaw. But we’re arranging for an interview with her, and she’s been gracious to authorize that as long as her daughter’s there,” the director said.

“We’ll be doing that if we haven’t done it already. We’ll be doing that here shortly,” McCraw said.

The shooter’s 66-year-old grandmother remains at University Hospital in San Antonio in good condition, according to a tweet from the hospital on Tuesday. The gunman allegedly shot his grandmother before the massacre.

Col. Steven McCraw, seated center, testifies at a Texas Senate hearing at the state capitol, on June 21, in Austin, Texas.

After laying out the many failures of the law enforcement response to the Uvalde school massacre, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety says the actions of police that day “set our profession back a decade.”

“I appear to be hypercritical of the on-scene commander and I don’t mean to be, but the facts are the facts,” Col. Steven McCraw told the Texas Senate Special Committee to Protect All Texans.

“Mistakes were made. It should have never happened that way. And we can’t allow that ever to happen in our profession. This set our profession back a decade is what it did.”

The response could pose lasting damage to the reputation of law enforcement, he said, adding: “When I say we – we as a law enforcement community. And when one fails, we all fail, plain and simple.”

Asked why his agency did not take command of the Uvalde shooting after arriving at the scene, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety Col. Steven McCraw said the person in charge is typically the “ranking official of the agency that has jurisdiction.”

“That’s by practice and doctrine,” McCraw said.

In the case of the shooting at Robb Elementary School last month, it meant Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief Pedro “Pete” Arredondo was in charge. His leadership and the decisions he made have come under increased scrutiny in the weeks since the shooting, especially his decision to delay breaching the classroom while waiting for more manpower and equipment.

“The sheriff and the chief of the police of the Uvalde Police Department also deferred and said yes, he is the on-scene commander,” McCraw said, adding Arredondo was on the scene throughout the entire shooting incident. “So by actions and deeds, he issued commands and had information and provided information and controlled the scene.”

“DPS, the Border Patrol, FBI, everybody that came in afterwards, US Marshals that came in afterwards, it is not the practice or policy to take over anything,” he said.

 A police officer talks to people asking for information outside the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24.

The director of the Texas Department of Public Safety did not fault parents of Uvalde Elementary School students for wanting to enter the school while the shooting was ongoing, but he said the decision to keep them out was equally understandable.

In his testimony before the Texas Senate Special Committee to Protect All Texans, Col. Steven McCraw said parents were updated through an email system as the shooting unfolded and told to stay away from campus.

“But parents being parents, as time goes by, where are you going to? You want to know if it’s your child,” McCraw said. “They’re emotional. They’re desperate.”

In the days after the shooting, footage emerged of frantic parents outside the school who appeared frustrated with the law enforcement response. One told the Washington Post he and others wanted to storm the school to retrieve their children as they heard gunshots from the inside.

Some parents had to be restrained from law enforcement, McCraw said Tuesday, noting at least two parents were detained by DPS personnel. One was trying to break through the police perimeter, while another was trying to get to students on a school bus. But he was not aware of any parents being arrested.

“They were restrained and understandably so,” McCraw said. “And I’m not saying it’s a bad idea at all to have a perimeter and keep people out, especially if it’s a barricaded situation. It’s understandable why the call was to keep parents out, it’s also understandable why parents wanted to go in.”

Col. Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said most doors at Robb Elementary School could not be locked from the inside.

“This is ridiculous, and it’s inexcusable if you’re looking at it from a security standpoint,” he told the Texas Senate Special Committee to Protect All Texans.

Asked by a committee member if the idea the school had gone into lockdown during the assault was a myth, McGraw said, “I would absolutely agree in this case.”

McGraw emphasized there was “not an effective lockdown” in place at the time of the shooting.

In the days after last month’s deadly school shooting at Robb Elementary, authorities said a gunman with an assault-style rifle entered two adjacent classrooms, shot children and teachers and barricaded himself behind locked doors, preventing outgunned responding officers from stopping him until 77 minutes later.

But the director of the Department of Public Safety, Col. Steven McCraw, said Tuesday the doors were not locked, and the officers had sufficient equipment to respond.

The timeline laid out by McCraw noted at 11:33 a.m., “Suspect Enters the school through the west door.”

The timeline also showed at 11:35 a.m., “3 Uvalde PD Officers enter west door (including 2 rifles)” and at 11:52 a.m., the “FIRST ballistic shield enters the west door.”

But preliminary evidence suggests none of the officers attempted to open the classroom door until moments before taking down the gunman, according to a law enforcement source close to the investigation and reporting in the Texas Tribune and the Austin American-Statesman.

A security footage image obtained by the Austin American-Statesman showed at least three officers in the hallway – two with rifles and one who appeared to have a tactical shield – at 11:52 a.m., 19 minutes after the gunman entered the school. Officers remained in a hallway outside the classrooms and did not try to enter until 12:50 p.m.

During that time, children were still alive and calling 911 for help. One student told CNN she smeared herself with her friend’s blood and played dead.

The Texas Senate committee is back in session.

Col. Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, will continue to answer questions from other state senators.

Col. Steve McCraw, right, talks with State Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, left, during a break in a Texas Senate hearing at the state capitol, on June 21, in Austin, Texas.

The Texas Senate committee is on a five-minute break.

It is investigating the Uvalde elementary school shooting and is hearing from Col. Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety. McCraw called law enforcement response an “abject failure.”

Using a diagram of Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw testifies at a Texas Senate hearing at the state capitol, on June 21, in Austin, Texas.

A threat and vulnerability assessment conducted by the Texas Department of Public Safety determined the only portable radios that would have worked inside the west building of Robb Elementary School were those belonging to Border Patrol agents, according to the department’s director, Col. Steven McCraw.

Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District police officers’ radios would not have worked inside the school, McCraw said while speaking to the Texas Senate Special Committee to Protect All Texans on Tuesday, “nor would the [police department’s] … nor would the sheriff’s office’s if they’re responding to assist, and nor would DPS officers’ if they’re responding to assist.”

According to McCraw, Border Patrol has a station in Uvalde with a tower to boost their own radio signals, but added when Border Patrol tried to patch their signals together with local law enforcement radios, Border Patrol’s radios didn’t work either.

McCraw said cellphones were able to work inside the school, which is how the chief was able to communicate with dispatchers and children were able to call 911.

He said the system should be replaced, or technical capabilities expanded inside, and every school in the state should also be evaluated.

Within three minutes of the gunman entering Robb Elementary School, 11 officers arrived on the scene, according to a Texas Tribune report and confirmed by a law enforcement source to CNN.

Uvalde school district police chief Pete Arredondo called the Uvalde Police Department’s dispatch by phone shortly after the gunman fired at officers, according to the source, requesting further assistance, and saying he did not have his radio on him.

Col. Steven McCraw shows how an interior door in Robb Elementary School failed to lock securely during the hearing at the Texas State Capitol in Austin, on June 21.

The door the gunman used to enter Robb Elementary was unlocked, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Col. Steven McCraw told the Texas Senate Special Committee to Protect All Texans on Tuesday.

“It was closed, but unlocked,” McCraw said, noting it allowed the shooter to “walk straight through it.”

A teacher had propped the door open with a rock, her attorney previously confirmed to CNN, as she went inside to report the gunman’s vehicle crash moments before the shooting. When she returned, she saw the gunman approaching, kicked the door shut and ran to a nearby classroom, her attorney has said.

“So when she knocked the rock out, it closed securely,” McCraw said Tuesday. “But there’s no way for her to tell that the door was unlocked. The only way to know that the door is unlocked is to go out, close the door, then try it.”

McCraw pointed out regardless of whether the door had been locked, the windows to the side of the door could have been shot to break the glass, giving access into the building.

McCraw also said the shooter walked into and back out of a classroom that was later breached “seamlessly” and didn’t have a key.

“The door was unsecured,” McCraw said.

The DPS colonel also noted video evidence reviewed by his department never showed anyone putting their hand on the door handle to check whether it was locked. McCraw said the breachers interviewed afterwards said they also didn’t try the door handle beforehand.

At the top of his remarks before the Texas Senate Committee, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety said there was “compelling evidence” the law enforcement response to the Uvalde shooting was a failure.

Director Steven McCraw noted it had been 28 days since the shooting, and there remains much to be done before the investigation is completed and presented to the district attorney.

An FBI agent walks by the outside of Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas on May 25, one day after the school shooting.

Robb Elementary School shooter Salvador Ramos was on “a pathway to violence” at least eight months prior to the attack, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Col. Steven McCraw told the Texas Senate Special Committee to Protect All Texans on Tuesday.

Ramos had asked a family member to purchase him a weapon, but they refused because Ramos was 17 years old at the time, according to McGraw.

Ramos then began making several purchases for rifle accessories, specifically magazines, as well as slings and high-end optics, McCraw said. 

“And he had money. He had money in a bank joint bank account,” McCraw added. “He had money and in a joint account with his grandmother, and used the debit card to make those online purchases.”

The day of his birthday, May 16, Ramos was eligible to purchase a weapon and purchased two 5.56 millimeter rifles, according to the DPS colonel.

Col. Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, today invoked how the 1999 Columbine shooting changed the way law enforcement responds to active shooter situations.

During the Texas House Committee hearing on the Uvalde school massacre, McCraw said:

In 2018, James Gagliano, a retired member of the FBI’s elite hostage rescue team, explained to CNN what exactly the response entails.

An exhaustive FBI review of the police response at Columbine led to a more rapid response strategy during active shooter situations, according to Gagliano.

Before the Colorado shooting, responding officers would set up a secure perimeter around the crime scene before even thinking about moving on the suspect.

“Nowadays, what we do is go to the sound of the guns,” Gagliano said. “You get one, two, three, four people together. We’re trained. We use particular formations.”

The police response in Uvalde has been criticized, with responding officers not stopping a gunman until 77 minutes after he entered Robb Elementary School and killed 19 children and two teachers.

Police waited one hour, 14 minutes and 8 seconds to breach the Robb Elementary classroom where the shooting occurred and rescue the students and teachers inside, Texas DPS Director Steven McCraw said.

“While they waited, the on-scene commander waited for a radio and rifles,” McCraw said, referring to UCISD Police Chief Pedro “Pete” Arredondo. “Then he waited for shields. Then he waited for SWAT. Lastly, he waited for a key that was never needed.”

McCraw’s comments come as new details emerged about the police response, which has been widely criticized since the shooting.

Preliminary evidence suggests none of the officers attempted to open either of the doors until moments before taking down the gunman, according to a law enforcement source close to the investigation and reporting in the Texas Tribune and the Austin American-Statesman.

The officers were not without weaponry and equipment. One security footage image obtained by the Austin American-Statesman shows at least three officers in the hallway – two of whom have rifles and one who appears to have a tactical shield – at 11:52 a.m., 19 minutes after the gunman entered the school.

Still, they remained in a hallway outside the classrooms and did not try to enter until 12:50 p.m.

Texas State Sen. Roland Gutierrez grew emotional as he told committee members that he has spent about 20 of the last 28 days at the scene of the school massacre. For the first 14 days, he says, he would leave home at 5:30 a.m. and get back at 1 a.m.

He went to as many viewings as he could.

“I saw seven baby girls and their coffins. And I did this because I wanted to come back and talk to you all, and tell you what I saw and tell you the things that you don’t ever want to see in your communities.

He recalled families huddled in prayers at a reunification center.

“You all are fixers in this room… That day I couldn’t fix anybody,” he says.

“I didn’t have the courage to put my arm around them and tell them I’m here for you. They didn’t want to be talked to by their senator or by their governor or anybody. They wanted to be just alone with their loved ones waiting. As they received the most horrific news that they had ever heard, that any one of us with children or even any rational person would ever want to hear,” Gutierrez said, his voice breaking.

“Their silence turned into the most awful screens that you could imagine,” he said.

Tuesday’s hearing before the Senate Special Committee to Protect All Texans began with a call for a moment of silence by Sen. Robert Nichols, one of the committee’s chairpersons, to “remember and honor the 19 students, 2 teachers and 17 who were injured in the tragic shooting at Robb Elementary.”

Afterward, Nichols said the hearing Tuesday would cover three of the five topics it had been charged with, including police training, school safety and social media. The other two topics – mental health and firearm safety – will be covered Wednesday, Nichols said.

“The topics we’re going to cover are sensitive in nature and will be difficult to talk about at times,” Nichols said. “Nonetheless protecting our school children is the most pressing issue facing our state today.”

Nichols asked committee members to come to the table without any specific policy recommendations in mind, saying it was important they be open-minded to the suggestions of witnesses.

He said:

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott during a community-held vigil for the 21 people killed at Robb Elementary School, on May 25 in Uvalde, Texas.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott requested both chambers of the state legislature form special legislative committees in response to the Robb Elementary shooting.

In a June 1 letter to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dade Phelan, Abbott wrote the state of Texas “must reassess the twin issues of school safety and mass violence.” He asked the committees to make recommendations to the state Legislature and the executive branch so “meaningful action” could be taken on:

The hearing Tuesday by the Senate Special Committee to Protect All Texans will be held as the Texas House committee holds a separate hearing, where Uvalde schools Police Chief Pedro “Pete” Arredondo is expected to testify.

In the days after the shooting, Texas Department of Public Safety Col. Steven McCraw said the incident commander made the wrong decision when he chose to not immediately breach the conjoined classrooms where the shooting occurred.

On May 27, as questions began to mount over the police response, McCraw said the classroom was not immediately breached because the commander – the Uvalde school district’s police chief – believed the scene “had transitioned from an active shooter to a barricaded subject.”

The commander, McCraw said at the time, believed “there was time to retrieve the keys and wait for a tactical team with the equipment to go ahead and breach the door and take on the subject.”

“From the benefit of hindsight where I’m sitting now, of course it was not the right decision,” McCraw said. “It was the wrong decision. Period. There’s no excuse for that.”

The tactical team eventually entered the room using keys from a janitor.