McCraw Escalates Uvalde Chief Shaming
while Assigning No Responsibility to DPS

Capitol Inside
June 21, 2022

Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw testified on Tuesday that the Uvalde school police chief single-handedly prevented fellow officers from entering a pair of connecting classrooms at Robb Elementary and killing a teenage gunman who was barricaded inside with children and teachers for more than an hour last month.

McCraw told the special Texas Senate Committee To Protect All Texans that the police response in Uvalde was an "abject failure" - creating the appearance at a hearing in the upper chamber that school chief Pete Arredondo had behaved in a cowardly fashion after a string of initial errors that caused a communications breakdown.

"The only thing stopping a hallway of dedicated officers from entering room 111 and 112 was the on-scene commander, who decided to place the lives of officers before the lives of children," McCraw said in appearance before the panel for more than two hours.

McCraw had attempted to pin the albatross on Arredondo and local officers three days after the rampage that U.S. Border Patrol agents arrived and killed 18-year-old Salvador Ramos after he murdered 19 students and two teachers with an AK-15 assault rifle that he'd purchased on his birthday the week before.

The DPS shut down the flow of information to the public immediately after the first scapegoating attempt appeared to be successful based on mainstream media reports. State Senator Roland Gutierrez of San Antonio said last week that McCraw acknowledged in a conversation that the DPS had 13 officers at the scene before the USBP crew traveled to Uvalde and got the job done.

McCraw hasn't offered a public explanation on why the state police under his direction failed to take command of the scene and bring the siege to an end. The DPS had been invisible in the narrative that McCraw set in motion before going silent until the Senate hearing today. McCraw continued to refuse to attribute any culpability to his own officers at the meeting on the chamber floor.

"The officers had weapons. The children had none," the veteran DPS leader said. "The officers had body armor. The children had none."

McCraw poured it on Arrendondo, who wasn't on hand to defend himself.

"One hour, 14 minutes and eight seconds. That's how long the children waited and the teachers waited in rooms 111 to be rescued," McCraw testified. "And while they waited, the on-scene commander waited for radios and rifles. Then he waited for shields. Then he waited for SWAT. Lastly, he waited for key that was never needed."

more to come ...