more questions and strong
criticism today about how law
enforcement responded in uvalde,
Texas, to the mass shooting when
it happened.
The Texas senate held a special
hearing today where new details
have emerged about what officers
did - and did not do - in those
critical moments.
Amna nawaz looks at the latest.
Reporter: Judy, it took law
enforcement one hour, 14 minutes
and 8 seconds to engage the
shooter, who was in a classroom.
Testifying before a state senate
committee today, the director of
Texas' department of public
safety, Steven Mccraw, offered
this scathing assessment of the
uvalde police response.
Steven Mccraw: There's
compelling evidence that the law
enforcement response to the
attack at Robb elementary was an
abject failure and antithetical
to everything we've learned over
the last two decades since the
columbine massacre.
3 minutes after the subject
entered the west building, there
was a sufficient number of armed
officers wearing body armor to
isolate, distract, and
neutralize the subject.
The only thing stopping a
hallway of dedicated officers
from any room 111 and 112 was
the on-scene commander who
decided to place the lives of
officers for the lives of
children.
The officers had weapons.
The children had none.
Reporter: Tony plohetski is an
investigative reporter for the
Austin american-statesman
covering the Robb elementary
massacre.
He joins us now from Austin,
Texas.
Thank you for being with us.
From the beginning, we have been
getting different details and
details have changed.
At first they said the gunman
had barricaded himself, then
they said officers did not have
protective.
Those things were not true.
What new things did we learn
from the hearing today?
Tony: There was a lot of
discussion about to what extent
authorities tried to access the
classroom where the gunman had
barricaded himself.
What we know is that according
to bodycam video, authorities
who arrived on scene never even
tried to access the classroom.
They never tried the door to see
if it was locked.
Furthermore, now there is
evidence that the classroom door
wasn't even locked.
For all that time.
The time spent trying to acquire
a master key, according to
testimony today, that time was
wasted and officials could have
been doing other things and
taking other steps to try to
breach the classroom.
Reporter: It is incredible to
think they never even tried the
door.
Tony, you reviewed some video
surveillance footage from inside
the school and captured some of
the critical moments during the
shooting.
Tell me about what this image
shows and tells us about what
was going on.
Tony: I was allowed to review a
substantial amount of footage
from that video camera, the
security camera in the hallway.
This photo is noteworthy.
It was taken from the video at
11:52 A.M., 19 minutes after the
gunman entered the school.
What is so significant is that
you can see two police officers,
at least two were on the scene
at that point with high-powered
weapons and one of them had a
ballistic shield.
So according to investigators
reviewing this information, that
was more than enough according
to them to do what they needed
to do to breach the classroom
and make every effort possible
to take out the shooter.
Reporter: It is such a damaging
assessment from the response.
Have we had any response from
uvalde police?
Tony: Little has been said.
We know the uvalde school
district police chief, who
really was the commander, or at
least he assumed command, he
testified privately today for
five hours to a Texas house
committee but with regard to any
major public statement, he has
said precious little about what
steps they did and did not take
that horrible day.
Reporter: I want to ask you
about people on the ground in
uvalde.
Yesterday, there were some signs
of normalcy.
They held a little league
all-star championship.
Six of the kids who should have
been there were because they
were killed in that shooting.
-- Should have been there were
not because they were killed in
the shooting.
Tony: People we have talked to
have a range of emotions.
People are trying to get back to
some sense of normalcy, if that
can never really happen.
But let me assure you that the
pain in the community, the town
of 16,000 people, runs deep and
there is a continued thirst to
get to that truth and fully and
broadly understand what happened
and hopefully stop it from
happening in any community
again.
Reporter: Tony has been covering
that massacre from one month
ago, joining us from Austin.
Thank you for your time.