On Thursday, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) said that his department “did not fail” Uvalde during its response to the Robb Elementary School shooting last May.
During the state’s annual public safety commission, legislators joined angry parents of the 19 children killed, calling upon the department head, Director Steve McCraw, to resign.
However, while McCraw acknowledged that mistakes were made by the officers, he denied that a systemic failure in DPS existed that necessitated his removal.
Defending his agency, McCraw argued that the law enforcement failures on that tragic day did not warrant his removal, though he does continue to take responsibility for the department’s failures.
McCraw expressed that “If DPS as an institution failed the families, failed the school or failed the community of Uvalde, then absolutely I need to go. I can tell you this right now, DPS, as an institution, … did not fail the community. Plain and simple.”
Agents from DPS arrived at the school 11 minutes after the first shots were fired, however, law enforcement officials from the Uvalde Police Department and the school district, including Chief Pete Arrendondo, were already on the scene, according to a timeline released by DPS.
Lawmakers and people connected to students who died in the shoot have continued calls for McCraw to step down.
Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-San Antonio) accused McCraw of denying responsibility and was among the first to call for the chief’s resignation. “DPS Director McCraw should RESIGN immediately,” Gonzales tweeted on Thursday.
Sen. Roland Gutierrez (D-San Antonio) similarly suggested, “DPS failed on May 24. It failed to take control of a dangerous situation. It failed to neutralize an ongoing threat. It failed in the aftermath of the shooting by not following normal triage protocols with the injured. It failed in the days following the massacre by giving false information that was easily provably false.”
McCraw told the commission that a criminal investigation into the police response to the shooting led by Texas Rangers would be wrapped up by the end of the year and turned over to prosecutors.