Local law enforcement requested that they hold back while a horrific mass murder is ongoing, but these Border Patrol agents defied the orders and it was the best decision they made by far.
On Friday, two senior federal law enforcement told NBC News that BORTAC agents waited about 30 minutes and then decided to ignore local law enforcement’s request to remain outside, entering the school and neutralizing the gunman – Salvador Ramos.
One of the BORTAC agents sustained a graze wound to the head before killing the shooter.
Police response time and inaction have been heavily criticized for the incident which was considered one of history’s deadliest and most tragic school shootings.
100 Percent Fedup noted:
Mistakenly believing that the shooter was contained and no longer a threat, as the belief held was that all students inside the classroom with the shooter were already dead, Uvalde Independent School District Chief Pete Arredondo ordered law enforcement, including Border Patrol, to stand back.
Border Patrol and federal agents complied for about thirty minutes, however out of desperation as the volume of 911 calls from students within the school increased, they ultimately defied the chief’s orders to enter the school and eliminate the gunman.
Here’s what Texas Governor Greg Abbott said after being feed with wrong information:
“I was misled.”
“I am livid about what happened. I was on this very stage two days ago, and I was telling the public information that had been told to me in a room just a few yards from where we are right now.”
“I wrote hand notes in sequential order.”
“When I came out on that stage and told the public what happened, it was a recitation of what everyone told me.”
“As everybody has learned, the information I was given turned out – in part – to be inaccurate.”
“I am absolutely livid about that.”
Abbott stated that law enforcement must “get to the bottom of every fact, with absolute certainty.”
Calling the fact that families have suffered from false information “inexcusable,” Abbott demanded that law enforcement “get down to every second what happened, and explain it to the public – but most importantly, to the victims.”
Local officers waited too long to respond to enter the school and respond to the shooter, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw told reporters at a press conference on Friday.
McCraw said that the on-scene commander at the time of the shooting, police chief Peter Arredondo, believed that the gunman had barricaded himself without additional threat to children at the school and that there was time to bring in more officers and equipment for a “tactical breach.”
On 40 minute delay in police engaging the suspect inside Robb Elementary School, officials say, “a decision was made that this was a barricaded subject…there was time to retrieve the keys.”
“From the benefit of hindsight…it was the wrong decision.” https://t.co/q812K5OQTv pic.twitter.com/59SMt32ElZ
— ABC News (@ABC) May 27, 2022
Sources: 100percentfedup, NBCNews