Texas official gives update on Uvalde school massacre response review

At a Texas Department of Public Safety meeting Thursday, the state’s top cop heard more harsh criticism of his agency’s response to the massacre at a Uvalde elementary school, but he declined to step down.

If you’re just joining us, here’s what happened at today’s emotional meeting:

Family members spoke first, and they didn’t mince words:

The DPS chief says he won’t resign:

The DPS is a state police force — it helps local law enforcement in major incidents. On the day of the shooting, 91 officers with the department were on the scene.

McCraw said every officer involved in the DPS response was under evaluation, including one who stepped down while under investigation and another who is working through the formal process of getting fired.

For context: DPS, whose state police officers help local law enforcement with major incidents, had 91 officers on the scene of the May 24 massacre.

Texas State Sen. Roland Gutierrez speaks during the Texas Department of Public Safety meeting on Thursday, October 27. 

Texas State Sen. Roland Gutierrez compared the response to the Uvalde massacre to this week’s school shooting in St. Louis, which took police only 14 minutes to bring to an end.

Gutierrez was among the speakers at today’s Texas Department of Public Safety meeting.

“The average mass shooting in the United States takes 10 minutes,” he told the department’s oversight panel.

“We had a mass shooting at a high school in St. Louis two days ago. That high school had all of the locked doors, it had metal detectors, it didn’t stop that shooter,” Gutierrez said.

“And in 14 minutes from the time he entered … in 14 minutes he was dead. 14 minutes.”

St. Louis police said the shooter exchanged gunfire with officers at the school and later died at the hospital. 

During Uvalde, “these children waited 77 minutes,” Gutierrez continued. “Children trapped in a classroom had the courage to seek help by calling 911 over and over again. Law enforcement knew there were kids inside.”

“In that golden hour more lives are lost,” he said.

“No help arrived. We will never know how many children could have been saved,” the lawmaker continued.

Nineteen students and two teachers were killed during the May 24 shooting in Uvalde. In St. Louis Monday, two people were killed and several others injured.

Today’s meeting of the Texas Department of Public Safety, where the agency delivered a public update on the Uvalde school shooting response, has returned from a brief recess and moved to other topics facing the agency.

Family members of victims and other community members spoke passionately before Texas DPS Director Col. Steven McCraw made remarks. He then invited attendees to respond.

After a 15-minute recess, the department started addressing other issues on the meeting agenda.

Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw said he should’ve apologized about statements he made following the Uvalde school shooting about a teacher propping open a door.

McCraw said “obviously I should’ve apologized a lot sooner” after saying a teacher had propped the door to Robb Elementary open just before the gunman entered, McCraw told the Public Safety Commission meeting on Thursday.

“When we found out about it, we certainly corrected it on the record,” he added.

“This teacher, yes, she did prop open the door with a rock, but she did go back and she made a 911 call too, as well, and she did go back to that door and she did knock the rock outside of the door and close it,” the DPS director said. “Unfortunately, the door was unlocked. And that matters, because if you will look at this in terms of the totality of this thing. There’s multiple points of failure.”

Brett Cross, a relative of a student killed in the Uvalde school massacre, reiterated to Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw that he thinks McCraw should step down over the response to the shooting.

“If you are a man of your word, then you would retire,” Cross said after McCraw made a statement.

“You can get irritated all you want, I lost my damn son. Your anger is not going to outmatch mine, man,” added Cross, the uncle of Uziyah Garcia. He has said he helped raise Garcia and considered him a son.

McCraw said he is not angry, but he is “absolutely devastated” with what happened in the community of Uvalde.

Texas State Sen. Roland Gutierrez then said a report released after the massacre was “chock full of lies.” McCraw countered that the ALERRT (Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training) report was not produced by DPS.

McCraw said the response was an “abject failure, period.”

Texas Department of Public Safety Director Col. Steven McCraw said every officer from his department involved in the Uvalde massacre response is under evaluation, including one who has resigned and another who will soon be fired.

“I’m not going to sit here and say that the Department of Public Safety is without fault,” McCraw said.

“We’re going to evaluate every officer,” he added.

McCraw, the state’s top cop, said one officer already resigned while under investigation and is not eligible to return to the department. Another person is “under the termination process right now,” according to the DPS chief.

“There’s other officers to look at,” McCraw continued. “And we’ll continue to look at them.”

CNN previously reported that two DPS officers who were on scene at Robb Elementary were suspended with pay and referred for formal investigation by the inspector general, and three more were also to be investigated.

In his comments at Thursday’s meeting, McCraw did not specify further which officers he was referring to.

DPS director Steven McCraw attends a meeting on Thursday, October 27. 

Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw said DPS “did not fail the community” during the response to the Uvalde school shooting in May.

While admitting “there are things we aren’t proud about,” he said there were officers inside the school within minutes of the shooting. He said the threat of the shooter should’ve been neutralized “within 10 minutes.”

DPS is the state body that helps local law enforcement in major incidents.

There will be a peer review about the department’s actions, McCraw added.

Texas Department of Public Safety Director Col. Steven McCraw, Texas’ top cop, has begun speaking after hearing from emotional family members of victims in the Uvalde massacre.

His remarks are ongoing.

Jesse Rizo, an uncle of Jacklyn “Jackie” Cazares, one of the students killed in the Robb Elementary shooting, said the cycle of pain continues for families.

“We may look strong, we may sound strong, but inside we are falling apart,” he said.

He accused the state Department of Public Safety of spreading misinformation during the beginning of the Uvalde investigation.

“You basically lit a match and set the town on fire,” he said, addressing Col. Steven McCraw and telling him to resign.

Brett Cross speaks during the Texas Department of Public Safety meeting on Thursday, October 27.

Brett Cross, whose nephew Uziyah Garcia was killed in the Uvalde massacre, was the first family member to address the commission Thursday and called on Col. Steven McCraw to step down, citing comments the DPS chief previously made to CNN.

Cross, who has said he helped raise Garcia and considered him a son, said he expected Texas Department of Public Safety’s top official to tender his resignation in light of failures in the law enforcement response to the school shooting.

“We’re not waiting any longer. Our families, our community, our state has waited long enough,” he added.

About 20 family and community members are at the meeting, having made the roughly three-hour drive from Uvalde.

What McCraw told CNN: In a CNN interview, McCraw said he would resign if his force was shown to have culpability for the botched response that left the shooter with dead and dying victims for 74 minutes while hundreds of officers from multiple forces arrived on scene and did not challenge him.

He pledged: “I’ll be the first to resign, I’ll gladly resign, I’ll tender my resignation to the governor if I think there is any culpability in the Department of Public Safety. Period.”