AUSTIN, Texas - The head of the Texas Department of Public Safety says three minutes after a gunman entered a school where he slaughtered 19 elementary students and two teachers there was sufficient armed law enforcement on scene to stop the gunman.
Yet police officers armed with rifles stood and waited in a school hallway for nearly an hour while the gunman carried out the massacre.
Col. Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, called the police response "an abject failure." Delays in the law enforcement response have been the focus of the federal, state and local investigation of the massacre and its aftermath.The police commander made the comments while giving testimony during a special Texas Senate committee on the deadly school shooting that left two teachers and 19 children dead.
The agenda for the first meeting says members will discuss school safety, police training and social media.The Texas House has been holding its own investigative committee meetings, targeting the law enforcement response.