DAMAGE CONTROL

Uvalde Officials Pushed Narrative of ‘Hero’ Cops With ‘Zero Hesitation’ in School Massacre

Officials reportedly tried to get state leaders to sign off on the claim that “each minute [of the police response] was used to save lives of children and teachers.”

Amid mounting scrutiny of the police response to the Robb Elementary School massacre in early June, Uvalde city officials tried to convince state leaders to go along with a narrative about local cops displaying “zero hesitation” and acting as “heroes,” according to the San Antonio Express News. Remarks presented to Col. Steven McCraw, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, and District Attorney Christina Mitchell Busbee at a June 2 meeting reportedly included the claim that “each minute [of the police response] was used to save lives of children and teachers.” Singling out the school district police chief, Pete Arredondo, and several Uvalde Police Department officers, the proposed narrative also said, “There was zero hesitation on any of these officers’ part, they moved directly towards the gunfire,” according to the Express-News.

Busbee told the newspaper she had “objected” to the proposed remarks because investigators didn’t yet know if that was a “true assessment.” Surveillance footage from inside the school leaked last week showed dozens of heavily armed law enforcement officers standing around in a hallway while the gunman was barricaded with young kids inside a classroom. It took more than an hour for the gunman to finally be shot by a Border Patrol agent, and by that time 19 kids and two teachers were dead.