Uvalde school shooting timeline raises active shooter response questions

Updated June 6, 2022

The Texas Department of Public Safety held a press conference Friday describing the timeline of the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas that claimed the lives of 19 children and two teachers.

Steven McCraw, Director of the Texas Department of Public Safety detailed the timeline of the shooting on May 24, in which two connected classrooms in Robb Elementary School were breached by the shooter.

Law enforcement response

The gunman entered the building through a door that was unlocked. McCraw previously reported that a teacher had left the door propped open, but the Texas Department of Public Safety has since refuted that statement. Contrary to prior reports, the shooter was not met by police before he entered the building at 11:35 a.m.

The first 911 call referencing the crashed car and gunman was made by a teacher at 11:30 a.m. Uvalde Police Department (UPD) officers were the first to arrive on-scene and were later joined by additional law enforcement officers. McCraw confirmed the presence at 12:03 p.m. of 19 officers in the hallway outside of the classrooms involved. At that time, no efforts were made by police to enter the classrooms, said McCraw. "The on-scene commander at that time believed that it had transitioned from an active shooter to a barricaded subject," he said.

"A decision was made that this was a barricaded subject situation, there was time to retrieve the keys and wait for a tactical team with the equipment to breach the door and take on the subject at that point," said McCraw.

McCraw stated that the commander believed no more students' lives were at risk. "Where I'm sitting now, of course it was not the right decision, it was the wrong decision," said McCraw. "There is no excuse for that."

Information obtained by dispatchers during 911 calls from two students inside the room between 12:03 p.m. and the moment the door was breached at 12:51 p.m. indicated that eight or nine children in the room were still alive. The door was breached by law enforcement using a key provided by the school janitor.

"Clearly there [were] kids in the room," said McCraw. "They may have been shot and injured, and it's important for life-saving purposes to immediately get there and render aid."

McCraw said that an interview had been conducted regarding the level of communication between 911 dispatchers and the incident commander. "If I thought it would help, I would apologize," said McCraw.

The Texas public safety leader emphasized the importance of proactive law enforcement action throughout the press conference, referencing a previous incident in Uvalde involving the arrest of two teenagers conspiring to commit an attack within the school district. According to McCraw, those individuals were apprehended in advance of an incident due to members of the public coming forward with information.

Madeline Lauver is the Editor in Chief of Security magazine. Lauver joined Security in 2021 as its Assistant Editor, and she covers news affecting enterprise security leaders, including physical security, cybersecurity, leadership and management, risk and resilience and more. Within her role at Security, Lauver focuses on news articles, web exclusives, features and several departments for Security’s monthly digital edition, as well as managing social media and multimedia content. Lauver graduated in 2019 with a B.A. in English, German and Media Studies from Kalamazoo College.

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