Multiple security failures contributed to Uvalde school mass shooting fatalities
Automatic locking doors and law enforcement radios — things that were supposed to protect children from mass shootings — failed during the Uvalde school
Automatic locking doors and law enforcement radios — things that were supposed to protect children from mass shootings — failed during the Uvalde school massacre, a top Texas official testified Tuesday.
In testimony before the state Legislature, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw outlined several school security failures that may have contributed to the tragic outcome at Robb Elementary last month, when a gunman opened fire and killed 19 students and two teachers.
While he described the police response to the shooting as an “abject failure,” McCraw said there also were several basic safety failures within the school building that should have been addressed long before the May 24 attack.
For instance, McCraw said, neither the exterior door nor the classroom doors could be locked from the inside that day, giving the gunman an easy pathway.
The shooter, Salvador Rolando Ramos, essentially “walked straight through” the school’s west entrance because an exterior door could be locked only from the outside, McCraw said during his testimony. While law enforcement initially blamed a teacher for leaving the door open, McCraw said the teacher actually shut the door not knowing that it had not locked.
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