Watch: Texas police lieutenant finally admits the real reason why law enforcement stood by while mass shooter opened fire
A Texas lieutenant has admitted the real reason for law enforcement's delay in entering the Uvalde, Texas school that was invaded by a mass shooter earlier this week.
On Friday, May 27, Lt. Chris Olivarez appeared on CNN where he further discussed the situation with CNN's Wolfe Blitzer. That conversation came just one day after a Texas Department of Public Safety spokesperson stated that police officers did not enter the school to confront the shooter "because 'they could’ve been shot,'” HuffPost reports.
"They could’ve been killed, and that gunman would have had an opportunity to kill other people inside that school," a spokesman said.
Speaking to Blitzer, Olivarez was asked to further expound on that remark. While he claims officers were quickly dispatched to Robb Elementary that day, he acknowledged that they waited nearly an hour to enter the school as they opted to wait for the tactical force that ultimately killed the shooter.
Over the last couple of days, Uvalde police have offered conflicting reports and timelines of the disturbing series of events that transpired that day.
\u201cTexas police lieutenant admits first cops on the scene at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas were reluctant to engage the gunman because \u201cthey could\u2019ve been shot\u201d.\u201d— Mike Sington (@Mike Sington) 1653609888
Blitzer continued to question Olivarez asking if that decision reflected as “current best practices … call for officers to disable a shooter as quickly as possible, regardless of how many officers are actually on site.”
“Correct,” Olivarez replied as he also noted that law enforcement officials faced obstacles while trying to bring down the shooter.
"The active shooter situation, you want to stop the killing, you want to preserve life, but also one thing that – of course, the American people need to understand — that officers are making entry into this building," Olivarez noted. "They do not know where the gunman is. They are hearing gunshots. They are receiving gunshots."
He continued, "At that point, if they proceeded any further not knowing where the suspect was at, they could’ve been shot, they could’ve been killed, and that gunman would have had an opportunity to kill other people inside that school."
Olivarez's remarks come amid deep scrutiny from the police department. Not only have they been criticized by the media but also by parents of students at the school. Speaking to The Wall Street Journal, Angeli Rose Gomez offered a blistering opinion of the Uvalde police. “The police were doing nothing,” said Gomez, a mother with two whose children were inside the school as the gunman opened fire. "They were just standing outside the fence. They weren’t going in there or running anywhere.”
