Despite calls from victims' families and a major newspaper, Texas Department
of Public Safety Director Col. Steven McCraw is refusing to resign, saying at
a meeting of the agency's oversight board on Thursday that his officers "did
not fail the community" of Uvalde during a May mass shooting that killed 19
fourth-graders and two teachers.
"If DPS as an institution failed the families, the school, or the community of
Uvalde, then absolutely, I need to go," McCraw said at a Texas Public Safety
Commission meeting. "However, I can tell you right now that DPS as an
institution has not failed the community, plain and simple."
In June, Uvalde, Texas, has a memorial service honouring the 19 children and
two adults slain on May 24 in a shooting at Robb Elementary.
Failures in the response to the Uvalde atrocity, such as ignoring the
lessons of Columbine, could cast a long shadow over law enforcement for
decades.
Following the referral of seven DPS officers for investigation by the
agency's inspector general for what they did - or didn't do - as a gunman
killed 21 people at Robb Elementary in the worst US school shooting in
nearly a decade, McCraw's comments, which came moments after several
victims' families demanded he resign, were made.
Law enforcement delayed 77 minutes to arrive on the Uvalde campus on May 24
while roughly 400 officers from DPS and 22 other agencies arrived minutes
later.
In June, a memorial to the 19 children and two adults killed in the May 24
mass shooting at Robb Elementary is seen in Uvalde, Texas.
Failures in the Uvalde massacre response, such as failing to learn from the
lessons of Columbine, could haunt law enforcement for decades.
McCraw's remarks, which came just moments after several victims' families
demanded he resign, come after the agency's inspector general referred seven
DPS officers for an investigation into what they did - or didn't do - as a
gunman killed 21 people at Robb Elementary in the worst US school shooting
in nearly a decade.
While nearly 400 officers from DPS and 22 other agencies responded to the
Uvalde campus within minutes of the first gunshots on May 24, law
enforcement waited 77 minutes before breaching adjoining classrooms to find
the victims and kill the 18-year-old gunman, in violation of commonly held
active shooter protocol and training.
McCraw previously stated that if his department is found to be at fault in
the shooting, he will "tender (his) resignation to the governor."
"It's been five months and three days since my son, his classmates, and his
teachers were murdered," said Brett Cross, who was raising his 10-year-old
nephew Uziyah Garcia before the shooting.
"Several numbers remain the same: It was 77 minutes that 91 of you all's
officers waited outside while our children were slaughtered," Cross said.
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