Uvalde, Texas, residents respond to revelation police waited to engage mass shooter

A city resident who arrived outside Robb Elementary School while law enforcement was responding to Tuesday's shooting expressed frustration after learning police did not immediately enter the classroom.

"If you assume that you have a barricaded subject—you cannot assume that," Uvalde resident Laura de la Cruz told Fox News while holding back tears. "You know it's a school, you know children are in there, you know the time, you know kids are in those classrooms."

Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw said police didn't immediately engage the shooter because "the on-scene commander at the time believed that it had transitioned from an active shooter to a barricaded subject."

"There were plenty of officers to do what needed to be done, with one exception, is that the incident commander inside believed he needed more equipment and more officers to do a tactical breach at that time," McCraw said. He also said waiting was the "wrong decision."

In response to the officials comments, de la Cruz told Fox News: "You go, you get fired at, you fire back and keep charging,"

"There were 19 people on site to one shooter. One goes, if you get killed, the next one goes. You just keep going," she continued. "You got to out blast this guy."

For over 45 minutes, 19 police officers waited in the hallway outside the fo... (Read more)

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