Fox News contributor Tom Homan continued to defend law enforcement’s actions during the tragic Uvalde school shooting on Friday, even after a police official admitted that cops made the “wrong decision” to wait while the gunman slaughtered children and teachers.
During a stunning and heartbreaking press conference, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw said officers on the scene of Tuesday’s horrific Robb Elementary massacre believed they were dealing with a “barricaded subject” after Salvador Ramos began shooting up a classroom.
Believing they had time to retrieve keys and wait on backup and additional equipment, more than a dozen cops filled the hallway outside the room where Ramos killed 19 kids and two teachers, according to McCraw. Twenty-five minutes after police first arrived at the school, people inside the classroom began calling 911 pleading for help. It would be 47 additional minutes before tactical units finally entered the room, killing the shooter.
“What do I say to the parents? I don’t have anything to say to the parents, other than what happened. We are not here to defend what happened, we are here to report the facts so they have the facts,” McCraw said on Friday. “If I thought it would help, I would apologize.”
Despite the Texas chief’s shocking admission of law enforcement’s devastating blunders, Homan—a former Immigration and Customs Enforcement director who later became the Trump administration’s “border czar”—felt the Uvalde cops were taking on too much criticism.
“They took what they believed to be an active, mobile active shooter, and contained him,” he declared on the Fox News panel show Outnumbered. “Until those officers got shot, they didn’t retreat, as I hear some news media say! They took cover and they kept him contained, which is the first thing you do in an active shooter [situation].”
Homan then took issue with anyone criticizing law enforcement’s decision to wait more than an hour to storm into the classroom to take Ramos out.
“So when people question why the police didn’t knock down the door earlier—you’ve heard the term ‘funnel of death’— they didn’t have any of that equipment, they didn’t have any of that training,” Homan stated. “So, that puts them at risk.”
He then held up the officers as heroes, adding, “I am not Monday morning quarterbacking. I’m just saying there are a lot of cops here that did a lot of the right things and overall saved a lot of lives.”
Additionally, Homan blasted reporters for grilling a police commander for answers at Friday’s heated and emotional press conference.
“I think there would be lessons learned and some mistakes that were made. But, you know, until the investigation is over, we are jumping the gun,” he huffed. “And some of the reporters, the way they’re firing these questions at McCraw, I think is a little unfair.”
Homan wrapped up his analysis by stating that the officers who responded to the scene “are victims too” while begging viewers to let the investigation finish before “throwing officers under the bus.”
He concluded: “The officers aren’t the bad guys. The shooter’s the bad guy.”
Homan’s over-the-top defense of the officers comes on the heels of Fox News host Lawrence Jones furiously objecting to multiple news reports that the Uvalde cops didn’t move quickly to neutralize Ramos.
“The suggestion that the AP would put out this report, saying that they didn’t run toward the danger is just simply ridiculous,” Jones exclaimed on Thursday morning.