The police officer in charge of the operation during the Uvalde primary school massacre had not been informed of the desperate calls made to police by some of the children trapped in the building, a Texas senator said today.
The calls received by the Uvalde police "were not relayed to the chief on the scene, Officer (Pete) Arredondo," the police department commander of the school district that owns the elementary school, Democratic Senator Roland Gutierrez told reporters.
This is "a flaw in the system," added Gutierrez, president of the Texas Senate, explaining that he did not know who had been notified of these calls.
Police actions have been at the center of criticism since this May 24 massacre at Rob Elementary School. Nineteen children and two teachers were shot dead by 18-year-old Salvador Ramos in one of the bloodiest school shootings in the United States.
The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) had revealed last week that 19 officers from various law enforcement agencies stood in the hallway outside a classroom where the gunman had stormed for 45 minutes before finally entering and killing him.
In all, police took about an hour to intervene.
This was despite the fact that many students and teachers who were in classrooms through which the attacker had passed were calling the police. Among them was one child who called saying: "Please send the police now."
Last week, DPS principal Stephen McGraw, had said that officers did not intervene more quickly because they believed "there were probably no more survivors," without explaining who had been informed of the calls to police from inside the school.
"We need to know what the law enforcement forces did" and what procedures were or were not followed, Gutierrez said.
"We all failed. Many mistakes were made," concluded the senator, who advocates the adoption of a stricter framework for gun ownership.
Source: protothema.gr
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