Searing public testimony illustrates extreme reluctance of police chief to let his officers put a stop to the carnage
uben Ruiz, a school district police officer in Uvalde, Texas, was standing in a hallway outside the classroom where his wife taught fourth-graders a couple of days before summer break. His wife, Eva Mireles, had just called his cellphone, begging for help after an intruder had shot her and her students.
McCraw’s public testimony to Texas state senators about Ruiz and Mireles was only the latest in a growing mound of evidence illustrating the extreme reluctance the Uvalde school district police force’s chief showed before letting officers put a stop to the carnage at Robb elementary. Residents who had recently elected Arredondo to a city council seat were hoping to subject him to a recall election because it would have required fewer than 50 signatures. Yet laws prevent them from taking such a step until February next year.
Police who respond first to so-called active shooters have been trained for at least two decades to confront the attackers as immediately as practical rather than wait for reinforcements, a painful lesson learned through countless mass killings across America over the years. But, within a minute of his call for reinforcements, emergency dispatchers had asked officers by radio whether the door was locked. An officer accompanying Arredondo said he wasn’t sure, but those at the scene had with them a so-calledtool that can pry locked doors open. On Tuesday, McCraw said the door had not in fact been locked.
The public safety department officer then twice said, “If there’s kids in there, we need to go in there.” The timeline notes a radio transmission reminding officers at the scene that “it is critical” to let the local police take the lead on the situation. A little more than a day after McCraw made that statement, the school district’s superintendent placed Arredondo on administrative leave.Neither Arredondo nor his attorney have responded to repeated requests for comment. Arredondo testified behind closed doors for a separate state house of representatives committee investigating the killings at Robb, but he hasn’t made any public statements about what he told that body.
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Why the west risks condemning Ukraine to slow strangulationBefore war fatigue sets in further, a rethink needed to avoid a years-long conflict
Read more »
'The end of Putin': This is why Ukraine is seeking EU membership and what happens nextThe European Union has voted to approve Ukraine's candidacy to become a member state. Here's what it means.
Read more »
‘Those bastard developments’ – why the inventor of the shopping mall denounced his creationThe world’s first indoor mall was meant to usher in a utopian America. But its creator, an Austrian who had fled the Nazis, came to believe a nightmare had been unleashed that ‘destroyed our cities’
Read more »
Why Judith Neilson took back her journo instituteThe billionaire lost her conduit to the board of the journalism funder, and its independent directors soon departed.
Read more »
The trouble at North: why club chiefs should be nervousThat Geoff Walsh has been commandeered back to North Melbourne to conduct a month-long review of the underperforming football club does not bode well for David Noble and his future there. | ANALYSIS by Caroline Wilson
Read more »
Why Australia’s energy transition needs an honest debateOPINION: Forget lower electricity bills. Just look at the sheer scale and cost of getting carbon out of the grid.
Read more »