phone message sent to parents by the school district while the shooter was still in the school. we ve also just learned that this man, pedro pete arradondo, chief of police for the uvalde school district who was incident commander that day, meaning the person authorities said made the decision to not have officers immediately go into that classroom and stop the shooter even though he knew it was an active shooter situation, he, according to our reports, has not responded to state investigators for two days. so keep that in mind as you listen to this recording obtained by affiliate ksat. it went out at 12:20 local time, in other words, as the shooting was happening and as police were standing nearby in a texas town for a tactical team to arrive, assemble, gear up, and then go in. no one was confronting the shooter during that time. police were standing outside. adjoining classrooms where kids were wounded, possibly dying still and others were hiding, smearing themselves with b
feels hotter due to the humidity. i ve seen long lines before when people wait for hours to get concert ticket or to receive free food or something free. that is not the case here. people are waiting in line, quietly to pay their respects. they are here because they want to show love and support. we have also heard from parents, including parents of some of the children who were killed on that tuesday. the shooting is still sijnking n but the parent we spoke to are upset and stunned. they were not concerned about the real trauma that was happening inside. they waited too long. too long. i was out here. i was out here and i m not the only parent that witnessed it. a will the of parents witnessed it and to see they are saying it was they got in here quick and handled business. that s not the way that happened. had they got in there sooner and somebody would have taken immediate action, we might have more of those children here today, including my daughter. reporter: the
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
than an hour while children inside were calling 9-1-1, begging for help. waiting because they apparently believed it was a barricaded subject situation. the police, not an active shooter. that was the wrong decision. texas officials say. a bit of hindsight, where i m sitting now, of course it was not the right decision. it was the wrong decision. very wrong. there s no excuse for that. there are so many unanswered questions tonight. but let s not lose sight about what this is all about. 19 children shot to death in their classroom, to teachers losing their lives as they try to save their students. and a country demanding to know how we stop this. cnn s 11 errors in uvalde tonight. ed, this is absolutely horrifying, this admission. what is the latest? one thing you need to remember is that for officers to work on school campuses, they go through a training mission. part of that, essentially outlines that if officers in these situations are not willing to go into these ro
crimes against humanity. cnn is at the scene of one of his alleged warcrimes. let s go outfront. good evening, i m erica hill in for erin burnett. outfront tonight, it was the wrong decision. that admission from the texas department of public safety who said today, the officers on the scene made major mistakes in their response to the mass shooting at rob elementary school, waiting more than an hour to enter the classroom where 18-year-old gunman was holed up with children and two teachers, some who had already been murdered, others injures, others playing dead. some desperately calling 911 for help. why was this decision made not to go in and rescue these children? again, you know, the on-scene commander considered a barricaded subject and there was time and children at risk. of course it was not the right decision. it was the wrong decision, period. we now know there were 19 officers waiting in the hallway just feet from the classroom. they stood by as these y