In Uvalde, A Picture Is Emerging Of Extreme Cowardice And Incompetence Among Local Police

John Daniel Davidson Visit on Twitter @johnddavidson

The fallout from Uvalde is revealing total incompetence, lying, bureaucratic self-protection, and rank cowardice on the part of local police.

As more details emerge about the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, it’s becoming hard not to conclude the worst about the local police response: Uvalde cops apparently stood aside and did nothing while the shooter killed 19 school children and two teachers inside a classroom.

A shocking news conference on Friday revealed that more than an hour passed after the shooting began and before an elite team of Border Patrol agents, whom Uvalde police had prevented from storming the classroom earlier, decided to ignore those orders and confront the gunman, ending the massacre.

During this time, about 78 minutes, as many as 19 police officers were reportedly in the hallway outside the classroom, while multiple students inside the classroom called 911 begging for the police to be sent in. But none came.

At the news conference, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw said the on-scene commander mistakenly believed that the shooter had barricaded himself in the classroom and that “there were no kids at risk,” which is just a euphemism for believing that all the kids in the classroom had already been killed. Pressed on this by reporters in a series of tense exchanges, McCraw at one point said, “From the benefit of hindsight where I’m sitting now, of course it was not the right decision. It was the wrong decision. Period.”

Who made that decision? McCraw said that the on-scene commander was the chief of police of the Uvalde school district, a man named Pete Arredondo. Chief Arredondo was not at the press conference, and no one has heard from him since Tuesday.