noon pacific, good to be with you. i m jose diaz-balart in for katy tur. today, the department of justice released a long awaited report on the police response to the mass shooting at robb elementary in uvalde, texas. it was almost two years ago in may of 2022 when a mass murderer took the lives of 19 children and two teachers, and despite officers arriving on the scene just three minutes after the shooter gained entry to the school, it took 77 minutes for law enforcement to confront the lone gunman. the report is scathing. calling the response to the shooting a failure. noting that despite evidence that wounded children were in the classroom, the officers did not engage with the shooter. they didn t treat the perpetrator as an active threat, and those decisions among others may have cost lives. families were briefed before the report was made public. i spoke to kimberly whose daughter lexi died that day and asked her what she wants to see come from this report. account is
just in the last hour, a major report from the justice department details what they call critical failures by law enforcement in response to the massacre at robb elementary school. we ll take you live to uvalde, where attorney general merrick garland will give remarks next hour. happening right now, former president trump s defamation trial is back under way in new york after yesterday s chaotic day. plus, new attacks in yemen overnight, adding to concerns of a greater conflict in the middle east. and in texas, a standoff between the biden administration and the state over access to the border. we ll break down what could happen next. we begin this morning with breaking news. the justice department has released its findings of nearly year long investigation into the mass shooting at robb elementy took law enforcement 77 minutes, an hour 17 to take the gunman down. right now texas state senator rowland gutierrez is sharing live remarks about the report. nbc justice and
speak louder than words can that on tuesday at rob elementary school in uvalde texas, this first priority for every single law enforcement officer in the state did not come first. the awful truth which was confirmed today is that police officers waited to storm a classroom while children were hiding inside and calling 911 for help that would not come. for as long as an hour. now we often here police officers talk about split second decisions. this time, the decision to go into a classroom and confront the shooter took 3,600 of those seconds. a full hour. a bit of hindsight from where i m sitting now, of course it s not a right decision. it was a wrong decision. very. no excuse for that. but again, i wasn t there. i m just telling you from what we know, we believe there should have been an entry there as soon as you can. that s steven mcgraw, director of the texas department public safety with the bottom line, different from what we ve been hearing all week long, different
was holed up frantically called 911. top police officials now admit it was a mistake to not engage the shooter earlier. have a listen. why was this decision made not to go in and rescue these children? you know the on scene commander considered a barricaded subject and that there was time and there were no children at risk. of course it was not the right decision. it was the wrong decision. parents of the victims obviously outraged at these missteps with one father telling cnn he wonders if his daughter and others might have survived if authorities had actually acted more quickly. and we now know the names and the faces of all 21 lives cut short with funerals set to begin next week. the texas governor says police have a lot to answer for. cnn s ed lavandera picks up the story from here. i was misled. i am livid about what happened. reporter: explosive reaction from the texas governor to new information about law enforcement s response on the day of the uvalde shooti
want answers. i was misled. i am livid about what happened. reporter: texas governor greg abbott aiming his ire at law enforcement. my expectation is that the law enforcement leaders that are leading the investigations, which includes the texas rangers and the fbi, they get to the bottom of every fact with absolute certainty. reporter: after damning new admissions from texas authorities. it was the wrong decision. period. reporter: the incident commander making the decision not to immediately enter the classroom the gunman was in. a decision was made that this was a barricaded subject situation, there was time to retrieve the keys and wait for a tactical team with the equipment to go ahead and breach the door and take on the subject at that point. reporter: officials explained how the shooter got into the school. where we knew the shooter entered, ramos, was propped open by a teacher. reporter: investigators clarifying the timeline as police arrived. the