Texas authorities ‘dropped the ball’ in response to Uvalde school shooting, experts say

Officers spanning multiple law enforcement agencies sprang into action on Tuesday, all of them racing toward the carnage unfolding inside Robb Elementary School before they inexplicably stalled outside — even as parents and concerned citizens alike begged them to storm the building.

Inside, a shooter, identified as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, had unleashed gunfire, fatally striking two teachers and 19 students before he was shot and killed by a member of the Border Control tactical team.

On Thursday, the Texas Department of Public Safety said he entered the school unobstructed and remained barricaded inside a classroom for up to an hour, sparking fierce backlash from community members who decried officers’ seeming inactivity.

Their response was far from the norm, Robert McCrie, a professor of security management at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said, adding that it’s “not typical to wait” that long before police officers act. He added that it should, at most, take law enforcement mere minutes to react to emergency incidents like an active shooter situation.

State troopers stand outside of Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday. (ALLISON DINNER/)

“The public has a right to expect that police officers should be able to reasonably and safely enter a building within that time frame,” McCrie said, holding up the response to the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary as an example.

On Dec. 14, 2012, Adam Lanza shot open the doors of Sandy Hook Elementary and stormed the Newton, Conn., school. Six teachers and 20 students were killed. Someone inside the building heard the gunfire and immediately phoned 911. Authorities arrived within minutes and the scene was contained by 9:40 a.m.

Witnesses and parents have claimed that cops dragged their heels in storming Robb Elementary School. Onlookers yelled at officers assembled to “Go in there!” according to Juan Carranza, 24, who lives across the street from the school and watched the scene play out. Parent Javier Cazares said he and others huddled together talked about taking action themselves while the “unprepared” police waited.

Despite near-constant comparisons, former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani, president of West Coast Trial Lawyers, said there was a “huge difference between the police responses in Sandy Hook” and the one at the primary school in Uvalde. He specifically cited the amount of time that lapsed between the 911 call and officers’ entrance into Robb Elementary.

“That is a huge problem,” he continued. “Texas law enforcement will likely say the students and teachers were barricaded in the room, that they could not immediately get in and that engaging in a shootout with the barricaded suspect could place children in the crossfire. But it is absolutely inappropriate when someone is inside a school for such a long time, killing young children and adults.”

Rahmani called the response at Sandy Hook “much faster,” while McCrie emphasized that speed does not necessarily equate to chaos.

“Police put themselves in harm’s way — and they needn’t be reckless about it — but they are trained to respond to weapons use, trained to respond to emergencies, ” he said, adding that if proper protocol were followed in Texas this week, the first officer on the scene would have raced into the building.

“It was daylight. It was an emergency. People were in chaos. The first officer on the scene should have alerted headquarters that he was going in, and requested backup for support.”

A notable shift in how police respond to such incidents was sparked by the mass shooting at Columbine High School in 1999, when a pair of young shooters killed 13 people. It marked the first time law enforcement raced toward the gunfire, instead of establishing a perimeter before engaging with the suspect.

Alex Vitale, a professor of Sociology and Coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center, pointed out a few noteworthy differences at Robb Elementary that may have affected the police response.

“It seems clear that the police in Texas were overwhelmed by the shooter’s firepower and body armor so they were slow to actively confront him,” he told The News. “They did not follow the active shooter protocol, because they were getting shot.”

A pair of police officers were struck by gunfire as they responded to the attack, but their injuries were not considered life-threatening.

“This is a fundamental flaw in thinking that more heavily armed SWAT teams are the solution, because the damage has been done before they get there and deploy,” Vitale said.

McCrie echoed the sentiment, saying that no matter how quick the response, the shooter typically “has the advantage, at least initially.”

“We need to expand the conversation by acknowledging the fundamental shortfalls in relying on a vigorous police response once the shooting has begun and instead shift to robust prevention and early warning systems along with vigorous gun control measures,” Vitale concluded.

Ramani disagreed, however, telling The News that Texas officers “dropped the ball if it really took 40 minutes to an hour” to enter the building in Uvalde, a small community of 15,000.

“Their delay should have lasted minutes, at most, if not seconds,” he added.