Police spokesman shocks with excuse for why police waited so long to engage Uvalde killer: 'They could have been shot'

Texas DPS Lt. Chris Olivarez shocked the nation Thursday when he explained why police officers were reluctant to immediately enter Robb Elementary School and engage the teenage gunman who was inside slaughtering children and teachers.

During an interview on CNN's "The Situation Room," anchor Wolf Blitzer asked Olivarez about the protocol for engaging an active shooter, which apparently was not followed in Uvalde.

"Don't current best practices, lieutenant, call for officers to disable a shooter as quickly as possible regardless of how many officers are actually on site?" Blitzer asked.

Olivarez's response understandably raised eyebrows, because he emphasized that the situation was dangerous for responding police officers.

"Correct," Olivarez responded. "The active shooter situation, you want to stop the killing. You want to preserve life."

"But also one thing that, of course, the American people need to understand is that officers are making entry into this building. They do not know where the gunman is," he continued. "They are hearing gunshots, they are receiving gunshots. At that point, if they proceeded any further not knowing where this suspect was at, they could have been shot — they could have been killed. And at that point, that gunman would have the opportunity to kill other people inside that... (Read more)

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