Police made the “wrong decision” by failing to storm a classroom in Robb Elementary School as a gunman killed 19 children inside, the chief Texas safety official has said.
“If I thought it would help, I would apologise,” Steven McCraw said during a heated press conference on Friday.
He said officers delayed entering the room because they didn’t believe it was still an “active shooter” situation.
But pupils inside made multiple calls begging for police to come.
Mr McCraw confirmed there was a 40 minute gap from the police unit’s arrival to the moment they decided to storm the classroom where the gunman had barricaded himself.
The senior officer on the scene decided to wait until the school janitor arrived with the keys because they thought that either “no kids were at risk” by then or “no one was living anymore”.
