Transcripts For CNNW CNN Newsroom With Alisyn Camerota And Victor Blackwell 20220526

And we will bring you that when we get it. We also have new and extremely emotional video of the parents who gathered outside of Robb Elementary School on tuesday while this shooting was under way. How many . How many . Whats happening . Tell me. Can you imagine . Can you imagine being those parents and hearing gunshots and begging, begging the police to make it inside, into that elementary school, and them pushing you back. Thats the case that was happening here outside of robb elementary. Im here, victor, with Jason Carroll and Shimon Prokupecz right now. Let me bring them in. Jason, i know you talked to some of those parents who are there. Right, when you see that video and you see so much of that frustration and anger on the part of the parents, i spoke to one man, victor luna, his son is in the fourth grade, he was one of those people, the minute he heard about the shooting, like so many other people in this area, rushed right here to the scene. He says he was standing there for minute upon minute after minute and was just frustrated with what he called the inaction of some of those officers who were out there. He said that what he wanted to do was take matters into his own hands. I want you to listen to what he told us about what he told an officer as he was waiting there. Do you remember what you were saying to the officers . What others were saying to the officers . I told one of the officers myself, if they didnt want to go in there, let me borrow a gun and a vest and ill go in there myself. To handle it up. And they told me, no. How does that leave you . Is it a feeling of anger, frustration . Anger and frustration. Especially for the other people that lost their children. They didnt deserve this. Reporter do you think some of this could have been prevented . Like i said, i think it could have been prevented if they wouldnt have let him go inside that campus. Reporter so as you could hear there, alisyn, he was saying, give me a gun, give me a vest, ill go in there and do it myself. That was the feeling of so many of the parents and relatives who were out here. His john,son is in the fourth g and survived. He said he felt they took too long between the time the shooter got into the school and the time they went and took him down. I asked him what time you got there. He said he arrived at about 11 40 a. M. He said he was standing out there, fighting, arguing with these officers for some 30 or 40 minutes. Again, his son, jaden, survived, but as we know, so many others did not. Shimon, have the police given any explanation for why it took so long to get in . The basic explanation has been they were facing some gunfire from the subject. Early on, that was the information and sort of some of the reasoning for why they gave that they would delay, that they were taking on gunfire. When you think about what jason just said, this father, 11 40, hes on scene. Thats minutes. Thats how quickly word was spreading through this community. So, that tells you yet that the additional officers, the Additional Resources were nowhere near here yet. They were on their way by then, but they werent here, so many of the parents who were gathering here, its early on, they could still hear the gunfire. They could still hear the gunfire coming from inside that school as their kids, their children, are inside. So, this is the thing that everyone now is asking, like, why . Why did it take so long for the reinforcement to come . Because think about it. We learned yesterday that the gunman was in that classroom for probably an hour, if not more. Hopefully were about to get some answers. So, this press conference is starting with the local Law Enforcement and hopefully were going to get some answers. Jason, shimon, thank you very much. Victor, let me show you and the viewers the newspaper from today. This is the uvalde leader news. Its all black, just full page of black with the date, may 24, 2022. Its obviously a really affecting visual there and right behind me, irreconcilable difference point out one more thing. This is the school. This is Robb Elementary School behind me and you can see the memorials that have cropped up and 21 white crosses. Right across from the school is the hill crest funeral home, just ironically, and so streets and streets have been blocked off because so many families are showing up to pay respects to the memorial, bring flowers, or go to the funeral home and make arrangements. Also, teachers have been showing up to get their cars, because they were had to evacuate so quickly and havent had their cars since then. So its a very, very active scene. Its a very griefstricken scene, and hopefully well get some answers momentarily. Yeah, and obviously, in such a tightknit community, it has overtaken the town of uvalde as theyre coming in to that community. Alisyn, well toss it back to you in a moment, but the bodies of those 19 victims, the children, theyve now been released from officials to those funeral homes. The two additional victims are expected to be released later this afternoon. And now the Small Community has to plan those 21 funerals. Family members are sharing more photos and more stories about the young lives senselessly lost here. Heres one. This is jacqueline jalen casares. Her father said she was a fire cracker who would do anything for anybody. Her cousin, who was just in the third grade, annabell roerdrigu, was also killed in the shooting. Jose flores jr. Wanted to be a flifr Police Officer when he grew up. The eldest of four children, his parents said he loved to care for others. When it was just me and him, id tell him he was so good, so helpful, and he would be my little shadow. He would just be helping me and stuff. He really loved his little brother. He loved him. He was a little helper. Lexi rubio loved sports, especially softball and basketball. Her parents said she dreamed about traveling the world. We had a journal here of hers that she wanted to go to australia. She wanted to go to law school. And st. Marys because thats write go. And this is amerie jo garza. Her father, angel, is a med aid to jumped in to provide assistance to ems workers while he awaited word about his daughter, and he said that he was trying to help a little girl who was covered in blood, and then this happened. She was hysterical, saying that they shot her best friend, that they killed her best friend and shes not breathing and she was trying to call the cops, and i asked the little girl the name, and she said sweetest little girl who did nothing wrong. She listened to her mommy and dad. She always brushed her teeth. She was creative. She made things for us. She never got in trouble in school. I just want to know what she did to be a victim. I mean, it really is just unimaginable to think that that is how he found out that his little girl was gone. Alisyn, im going to send it back to you. Victor, the strength and grace of these parents who are trying to fight through this grief right now is stunning. With us now is the Uvalde County commissioner, ronald garza. Mr. Commissioner, thank you so much for being here. I know this is a really, really tough time. Thank you for having me. Have you seen that video yet of the parents beseeching Law Enforcement in that hour after the shooting started to go in and do something . Yes, i have seen it. Reporter do you have any sense of why there was that hour lapse . You know, theres so much information out there. Im like a lot of people, still in the dark as to all the details of what took place. Reporter were those parents right to be begging Law Enforcement to go in during that time . I think so. As parents, i think they had the right to defend their children. Reporter do you have any idea if there have been active shooter drills here in uvalde . Obviously, this is such a hideous reality across the country that so many local Police Forces have had to do that. Do you know if theyve done that here recently . Not to my knowledge. No. I have no knowledge of that. I couldnt answer that question. Reporter because the general thinking, after so many of these, is that you have to get in fast, as fast as possible, even if youre taking incoming fire, and i know thats really easy to say from where i stand and hard to say for Law Enforcement. But you have to get in there, and you cant wait an hour, and so theres just questions of, were they not trained on how to do that . Yeah. You know, theres a lot of questions, but the parents deserve an answer. The parents of these young children, innocent children, deserve an answer, and i hope they get answers. Do you have any idea about the school setup . Were doors locked or not locked . I heard that back door was unlocked. And would that have broken protocol or were doors not locked . Yeah, i think it would have broken protocol, but being the last four days of school, you know, i mean, there was it could have been just mistakenly unlocked and opened. Its a tragedy that but hopefully well get some answers. I mean, i just cant what i have learned in my short time here, its a very tightknit community. Everybody knows everybody here and so its hard to know if not all schools have locked doors and some, you need a key to be able to get into, but youre saying thats one of the unanswered questions. Unanswered questions. And you mentioned tightknit community. Two of those victims are two of those children are tenants of ours. Their parents have rented, jailahs parents have rented from us for about six, seven years. Very good parents. Its just sad. I remember the young little girl, jailah. What was she like . She would ride her bike there at the apartment complex, lightcomplected. Every time shed see me, shed go, hi, ronnie. Such a beautiful reporter was she 10 . Yeah, about 10 years old, yeah. She was the baby of that family. Reporter she was the baby of the family. Have you seen them . Ive talked to i saw them the night of the incident at the Valley Civic Center when they were awaiting news. I texted the mother about an hour ago, if theres anything she needed. Unfortunately, she was at the funeral home making arrangements. Reporter so many are. So many are. As i was just saying on the air, all of these streets are blocked off for blocks and blocks because so many families are either showing up here at the school to build this memorial, or teachers to pick up their cars, or going to arrange for the funerals. So sad. Reporter and what does this mean for this community . Well, were in mourning. Were grieving. Lot of unanswered questions. But our community, we may have our, oh, how can i say, our im looking for a word here. We might not be all on the same page, but we unite when theres a need, when theres a crisis like this. We come together. Reporter what do you want to hear from police in a few minutes . I think we want all the answers. We want answers. And then better enforcement of security measures. Reporter is that what the answer is . I dont know. Thats a start, though. But the status quo is not working. And we obviously have to do something. But i would like to Say Something else, and the shooters family, this is not a reflection on that family. That family is values church. Theyre a family of faith. Reporter you know them . I know them. Hardworking. Reporter so what went wrong . I dont know. I dont know what went wrong, but this is not should not be a reflection on the family. Reporter duo you know the gunman . I knew of him. Reporter was he troubled . Not to my knowledge. But the familys a great family, and i knew his greatgrandmother. I knew the grandmother and the mother, the grandfather, and it shouldnt be a reflection on them or our community. Reporter we yes, we talked to the archbishop yesterday who said the same thing and that we need to keep them in our prayers as well. Yes. Reporter ronnie garza, thank you very much. Thank you, alisyn. Thank you. Victor, back to you. Weve got an update. That briefing thats going to start just a few feet from you, thats been pushed for 15 minutes from now to 2 30 eastern. Of course, when that happens, well bring it to everyone live. Until then, lets bring in Juliette Kayyem and ed davis, former Boston Police commissioner. Welcome to you both. Were waiting for details, commissioner. I want to start with you and that engagement, as its described, between that School Resource officer, the first Law Enforcement member to encounter this shooter, before he went into the building. Heres what we know from the director of the department of Public Services on describing that. Lets play it. Reporter how did, ultimately, Law Enforcement get inside that classroom . So theres a doorway that leads to a main hallway, which leads to other classrooms. T at that point, those initial officers were unable to make entry so they went around the school, breaking windows, rescuing children and teachers from those windows, bringing them out through those windows. They were able to set a perimeter until that Tactical Team arrived and they were able to make entry into that classroom. Through the door or through the windows . Reporter they went the same the shooter was able to make entry but they were able to make forcible entry. They had sufficient manpower to make entry into that classroom. Governor mentioned earlier, there was a brave Independent School district resource officer that approached him, engaged him, and at that time, there was not gunfire was not exchanged, but the subject was able to make it into the school as the governor reported. He went down a hallway, turned right, then turned left, and there was two classrooms that were adjoining and thats where the carnage began. As he was shooting, when the shooting began, we had uvalde Police Officers arrive on scene along with the consolidated Independent School district officers, immediately breach, because we as officers know every second is a life. Commissioner, i know these are the questions parents have. How is it that the School Resource officer sees this man and, again, hes got a rifle with him, go into the building and that School Resource officer is not the first Law Enforcement member right in the building after him . I do not understand. I do not like to second guess people. I do not like to make judgments before all the facts are on the table, and im very anxious to hear what they have to say in this briefing, but i do not understand whats come out so far. The officer who first encountered someone like that would be totally within his rights and policy to use deadly force against a suspect like that. And im watching these photographs of officers with rifles standing around. If, in fact, there was gunfire being heard inside, when that was happening, that is not consistent with what our training is. After columbine, we have and i have trained i have personally trained hundreds of officers on this. After columbine, we shifted our tactics to small unit tactics. As soon as you are able to pull together a group of four officers or three officers, you form a diamondshaped pattern, you make entry into the school, or to the building where the active shooter is, and you go to the sound of gunfire. Theres no talk about rescue. You do not perform first aid. You do not go around and try to secure the area. Your job is to move in, tactically, and remove the threat, and listen, i wouldnt criticize a Police Officer under fire. Ive been in those situations myself. These are combat situations, and people act differently in combat situations. But what im seeing right now is just totally inconsistent with what i know to be the proper procedure. Commissioner, im so glad you said that, because that has been my impression also. I thought it was aftersandy hook but youre saying it was after columbine, there was new training for police because this has become, tragically, so ubiquitous, and juliette, that they have to get in. They have to get into the school. And i am with the commissioner and everyone watching who, of course, we dont want to lay blame already at the feet of the police. Who knows if that would have changed anything . Its just that when you see how frustrated the parents were, and beseeching them, please get in there, please do something, that makes perfect sense. Right. Thats right. And it hasnt i mean, its so formalized in Law Enforcement and Public Safety, it has a name. Its called immediate action rapid deployment. I wrote about it earlier today. Theres no negotiation. We now know this about active shooters and mass killers. So, your immediate is taken literally, which is as the commissioner was saying, your you pass by injured bodies. People may be may need your help. You actually dont care. Your one job is to essentially kill or isolate the shooter and the gunman, and this has been drilled into all of us in homeland security, in Public Safety, in Law Enforcement for 20 years. Like, you dont even think about it. You know what youre supposed to do in an active shooter case, let alone one involving schools. So, i have a big question there, which is this time frame. Where is the gunman isolated, and at what stage do the killings take place . The second is just communication, and i want to make it clear, because i know, alisyn, like you, that video of the parents, youre like, thats me. Thats me running in. So, part of the training is also, you have to secure the site, and so one potential explanation, and this is what i want to hear, im not defending them, im just saying, it wasnt that they worried that lots of parents would come in and you have a shooter and youre just going to have a worse situation. So, part of the training is securing the site. It looks horrible. It does not look good for the Law Enforcement agents there right now. They need to explain the timeline and the training and the tactics, but those are some of the things coming out of the images and narrative that were seeing right now. This should not i mean, immediate means immediate. You dont care about victims. You dont even think about the families. You dont think about the children, even. You are just in there to essentially kill the gunman and then youve at least stabilized the situation. Juliette kayyem, ed davis, such good context. Thank you very much for your expertise and explaining all of that. And we will ask those questions as soon as this press conference starts. Victor . All right, you know, every time one of these massacres happens, theres this renewed push for gun reform. And then nothing happens. But there may be a shred of hope on capitol hill. Well get into that next. Youre pretty particular about keeping a healthy body. What goes on it. Usually. And in it. Mostly. Here to memeet those high standards is the Walgreens Health and wellness brand. Over 2000 high quality products. Rigorously tested by us. Real world tested by you. And delivered to your door in as little as one hour. heartbeats introducing icy hot pro. Ice works fast. To freeze your pain and your doubt. Heat makes it last. So youll never sit this one out. New icy hot pro with 2axstrength pain relievers. Im Alisyn Camerota here in uvalde, texas, and were waiting for police and other Law Enforcement to give us an update on the investigation. Meanwhile, they have put out a little bit of new information. They just released a statement, and Shimon Prokupecz has been following all this. He is back with us. What does it say, shimon . Alisyn, just to point out this is from the Uvalde Police department. This is the local Police Department that we really have not heard from. Mostly, we have been hearing from the dps, thats the state department of Public Safety . They are part of the team thats running this investigation along with the Texas Rangers sorry. Were waiting for the press conference here to start. So, theres really not a whole lot of new information here, but they are cognizant, they are aware that there are questions surrounding the response, the police response, and they acknowledge that, and they say that there are officers who did respond within minutes alongside the school Police Officers and that those officers sustained gunshot wounds from the suspect and then they say that our entire department it looks like keep going. Ill tell you when its starting. Momentarily. Thankful the law officers did not sustain any lifethreatening injuries and they say this is an Ongoing Investigation that is being led by the Texas Rangers. One of those rangers is standing here behind me with the white shirt. And that as soon as this investigation is complete, that they will be able to answer all the questions that they can. So, they say that they know that we have a lot of questions, but until this investigation is complete, they will not answer any questions. Looks like theyre still getting their ducks in a row, kind of huddling right now behind us before they take to the microphone, because they know i mean, i can theres just a huge scrum here, victor, reporters from every network. Did you have something, shimon . Looks like there are different Law Enforcement officials here. You see the Texas Rangers, the local police here, and thats dps here about to come to the microphone. Optically, you see this show of solidarity between all the different agencies and Law Enforcement before they answer our questions because they know, as ive said, theyre coming out to face there are networks. There are International Networks here. There are local affiliates. There are so many questions, obviously, and there are parents standing around, and obviously, neighbors who have questions as well. So, victor, were just waiting. It looks like theyre going to come out momentarily. Yeah, and and try to answer some of these questions. Certainly after we saw that video at the top of the show here with parents being held back who wanted to rush into the school, and as youve said in our Law Enforcement analysts have said, you dont want parents who are unarmed, unprotected, rushing in get their children. You can understand why, when they see Law Enforcement holding them back and not going in the other direction, there are certainly questions and hopefully well get answers to those. But we see, as shimon has classified it or characterized it, the alphabet soup of Law Enforcement there in uvalde. Its just starting now, victor. Sorry to interrupt you. Were just theyre just starting now. Good afternoon. Im regional director for dps south texas. Thank you so much for being here today. My goal today on this conference, this press conference, is to give you a snapshot, where were at today. This incident happened on tuesday, may 24th, so theres a lot of information, a lot of moving parts. We have a lot of people involved in this investigation. Im going to give you a summary of what happened. But before i do that, i was able to make it here during the event on may 24th, same with a lot of other Law Enforcement officers that came to this event, this critical incident. I got to see the victims. I got to see the officers. I got to see the Community Members. It is it is so hard. It is very its hard to take. Its traumatic. Were all hurting inside. Were hurting inside for the Community Members in uvalde, texas. Were hurting inside with our local partners that have to live here and work here every day. The victims, the family members, we feel for them. Im a father. I can go home tonight, hug my kids. That hurts. The members behind me are family members. Their kids, its tough. Its tough. Its hard. But that gives us the motivation to move on to do good work for uvalde, texas. For the victims. We speak for the victims, and we take that dearly. Before i get started, Texas Rangers are leading this investigation. But we cant do it alone. We cannot do it alone. We have atf, fbi, cbp, border patrol, Uvalde County district attorneys office. The list goes on and on and on. But the agencies i told you are the main ones that are assisting with this investigation. We want to know what happened, recreate the scene. That takes days. That takes hours. That takes time. Lot of information. Then we have to do a lot of interviews. So we just started. We started on tuesday. Todays thursday. Were still grabbing a lot of information. We also whats important to us is why . Why did he do this . Why did he do this . Who is this man . The suspect. Were going to find out. With all the different agencies that are involved, were working every angle thats available. We wont stop until we get all the answers that we possibly can. So, again, i want to thank these men and women that are behind us, supporting the dps and the rangers. So, theres a lot of information. Im going to give you theres some new information as of tuesday that i wanted to clear up. That we want to clear up thats been pushed out. Well continue to have updates in the coming days once the information is obtained and were able to confirm and corroborate that. We want to make sure were pushing out the right information. Early on, when we came in, we were receiving a lot of information from a lot of different locations. Thats a baseline. You start there. We made some reports. But since then, we started doing interviews. We started working the crime scene, so were corroborating. I want to share some of that. Its a small piece of information right now, but it will grow within days. So, please, thank you for being here and being patient with us. It means a lot. On tuesday, may 24th, at 11 28, suspect just west of here wrecks his vehicle, pickup truck that he took from his grandmother. He had just shot his grandmother in the face. Shes alive. Shes stable at this point. At 11 28, hes sitting there at the ditch. He jumps out the passenger side of the truck. According to witnesses, hes got a longarm rifle and a bag. Later, we find out its ammunition. He walks around, he sees two witnesses at the funeral home across the street from where he wrecked. He engages and fires towards them. He continues walking. He continues walking towards the school. He climbs a fence. Now hes in the parking lot, shooting at the school. Multiple times. 11 40, he walks into the west side of robb elementary. According to reports, video we have obtained from outside, inside, and again, were still combing through that, so bear with us. Multiple rounds. Numerous rounds are discharged in the school. Were trying to do get a number. Were in the process of analyzing that video. Four minutes later, local Police Departments, Uvalde Police department, the Independent School district Police Department, are inside making entry. They hear gunfire, they take rounds, they move back, get cover, and during that time, they approach where the suspect is at. According to the information i have, he went in at 11 40. He walked and im going to approximate 20 feet. 30 feet. He makes a right. He walks into the hallway, he makes a right, walks another 20 feet. Turns left into a school room. Into a classroom. That has doors open in the middle. Officers are there. The initial officers, they receive gunfire. They dont make entry initially, because of the gunfire theyre receiving. But we have officers calling for Additional Resources. Everybody thats in the area, Tactical Teams, we need equipment, we need specialty equipment, we need body armor, we need precision riflemen, negotiators, so during this time that theyre making those calls to bring in help to solve this problem and stop it immediately, theyre also evacuating personnel not personnel students, teachers. Theres a lot going on. A lot complex situation. Theyre measuring. Theyre measuring. Approximately an hour later, u. S. Border patrol Tactical Teams arrive. They make entry. Shoot and kill the suspect. But you also had a county deputy and Uvalde Police department that made entry and killed the suspect. Immediately, immediately, numerous officers, now it turns into a rescue operation. How do we save these children . How do we save these children . Some made it out. We dont have a hard number yet. But that was a goal. And then continuing making the area safe continued. Theres a lot of moving parts afterwards. But during, they were taking gunfire, negotiations, and developing a team to make entry to stop him. Ill take a few questions. And again, look, i summary one more thing i forgot to mention. That i want to clear up. That came out early on. It was reported that a School District Police Officer confronted the suspect that was making entry. Not accurate. He walked in unobstructed initially. So, from the grandmothers house to the bar ditch to the school, into the school, he was not confronted by anybody. To clear the record on that. Four minutes later, Law Enforcement are coming in to solve this problem. So, director, how is he able stand by. So, just want to clear that up. Thats very important. And again, this will happen as we move forward. So, thank you. Ill take a few questions. Director, how was he able to get in if it was a school thats supposed to be locked during the school day . So, right now, during the investigation, it appears it was unlocked. So, were going to look at that and try to corroborate that as best we can. Do you know why . How many gunshots do you know why it was unlocked . Please one at a time and well address as many questions as we can. Let me finish this question. One at a time. Announce your name and announce your network, okay . Lets be respectful, please. My name is josh. Do you know why it was unlocked . So, josh, thank you for the question. Right now, it appears it was unlocked, like i said, goes back to the investigation. It takes time. We will find out as much as we can why it was unlocked or maybe it was locked. But right now, it appears it was unlocked. So, thank you. Director, would you say at one point, when he was inside there, among the things you were attempting negotiation. Was he responding to negotiation . And in that period of time, was there continued gunfire . So, during that time, right now, according to the information we have, the majority of the gunfire was in the beginning. In the beginning. I say numerous. More than 25. I mean, it was a lot of gunfire in the beginning. During the negotiations, there wasnt much gunfire other than trying to keep the officers at bay, but that could change, depending once we analyze the video. But right now, according to the information, we did he did not respond. Nbc news. Any question is this. Was there a School Officer on campus, and was that School Officer armed . Because thats what weve been told. So, at this time, no. No. There was not an officer readily available, armed. No. Was there an officer no. Nothing. Nothing. I cant answer that yet. Ill circle back with you. Again, as we do that investigation, we have all these questions we want to answer, but ill get back with you, sir. Yeah . Theres a 12minute gap theres a 12minute gap from when he crashes his truck to when he enters the school. 12 minutes. What happened in that 12 minutes . So, you got to understand, 11 30 is the information we have at this point that we can confirm. 11 30 a. M. , we got a crash and a man with a gun. And then you have responding officers. Thats what it is. If its 12 minutes, from 11 30 to 11 40, thats the information we have right now. At the end of the day, our job is to report the facts and have those answers. Were not there yet. Over here, over here. Sir, when was the first 9 11 call . Say it again. When was the first 911 call . How long so, right now, the first 911 call was at 11 30. I will get the time what it took to respond. Well have that answer. Director, director. Would a Tactical Team have gone in before an hour lapsed . Could. Theres a lot of possibilities. Theres a lot of possibilities. Until we receive an interview because there was numerous officers at that classroom. Numerous. Once we interview all those officers, what they were thinking, what they did, why they did it, the video, the residual interviews, well have a better idea. Would anybody have got there sooner . You got to understand. Small town. You had people from eagle pass, laredo, san antonio, responding to a Small Community. Information you have so far, sir, should the officers have gone in sooner . Should they have waited for those Tactical Team . Thats a tough question. Thats a tough question. Again, it goes back, our job is to report the facts. Report the facts and later we can answer those questions. Based on what you know so far, should those officers i dont have enough information to answer that question just yet. Director, director. One more question, please. Is it accurate that eyewitnesses and potentially parents and students were urging the police to go in while you were waiting for a tactical s. W. A. T. Team, even that some parents were asking to borrow police armor so they could make a counterassault on the school . I have heard that information. But we have not verified that yet. What part havent you verified . We have not verified is that a true statement or not, or is it just rumor out there . You got to understand. Were getting a lot of information. Were trying to track down and see what is true. We want to vet it. Thats all i have for questions. Thank you so much. Did you follow best practices . Hold on, hold on. So, look, we appreciate the questions. What were the officers doing between 11 44 and 12 45 . Barricaded behind that you guys have said that he was barricaded. Can you explain to us how he was barricaded and why you guys cannot breach that door . So, i have taken all your questions into consideration. We will be doing updates. We will be doing updates to answer those questions. You should be able to answer that question now, sir. What is your name . Shimon prokupecz from cnn. Weve been given a lot of Bad Information, so why dont you clear all of this up now and explain to us how it is that your officers who were in there for an hour, yes, rescuing people, but yet no one was able to get inside that room. Shimon, we will circle back with you. We want to give you the why. Thats our job. Give us time. Im taking your questions back to talk to the team. Can you tell us how the door was barricaded . Thank you for being here. Well talk soon. Reporter okay, victor, youve heard theres a lot more questions than they were able to answer right now or willing to answer right now. You can hear reporters still yelling questions, and you know, i was able to ask him what about that hourlong lapse between the time that there was shooting heard in that classroom and the time that the Tactical Team showed up and got into the building and basically, he just said theyre still looking at it, and could they have done Something Different . He said, basically, thats what theyre going to explore. But thats sort of the top question here right now on the ground. This is a department, and as weve discussed at the top of the show, sensitive about the variables that are part of this investigation, but this department seems to be struggling to get a basic chronology of what happened. We heard there from victor escalon, the south Texas Regional director of dps, he said that he wanted to clear up what was said about a School Resource officer engaging this shooter outside of the building. The person who told us was the director of dps. Heres a direct quote. There was a brave consolidated Independent School district resource officer that approached him, engaged him, and at that time, gunfire was not exchanged. That was 24 hours ago that he was clear about there being an officer engaging and now today, theyre saying there was no officer. And the questions about the barricade that shimon asked, by now, we should know if that was simply a locked door, if there were desks on the other side of that door, and what the situation was inside the building. He said maybe the door was locked, maybe the door was unlocked. At this point, two days in, why dont we have some of those very basic questions answered . Lets bring in crime and justice correspondent Shimon Prokupecz who has some of those very same questions. So, shimon, obviously, theyre dealing with a lot. He did share some new information. We didnt know about the negotiations. I dont even know what that means, right . There was communication. It sounds like the police were negotiating with the gunman. Well, yes, but he wouldnt really specify what that is. But heres the thing. The gunfire, he says, stops at some point. And we have no explanation, why didnt they try to breach that door . You would assume that at that point, theres no threat i mean, you would assume theres no gunfire. Every effort should have been made to get inside, and we still dont have an accounting for what efforts were made because were now learning that they were in there for about an hour. Yes, rescuing other students, but the students that they were rescuing were not inside that classroom. There were students and teachers that were in the other classrooms. They were taking them out. So, thats the thing. You know, and its frustrating because we have, you know, we were given pieces of information yesterday, the day before, and now all that, again, is changing. John berman was given information this morning that now doesnt seem to be accurate. So, Bad Information from them has been coming, and perhaps maybe its the fog of this investigation, you know, so perhaps. But they should be able to answer some really important questions, and the fact that there was no armed officer here, they couldnt really explain why. Its clear that that officer perhaps should have been here. He wasnt here. Were learning that there were shots actually fired. Fired at the funeral director employees. Another reporter asked about that 12minute gap from 11 28 to 11 40, what is going on . What is going on . Theres an unlocked door. He goes inside. They cant explain why the doors unlocked. Thats understandable. But critical in all of this again is we are not getting answers as to that one hour, and its, you know, understandably, i think, frustrating for everyone because some of the information has been changing. Sure. You know, from minute to minute with some of these some of the press conferences that they have held. Stand by, shimon, if you would, because we want to bring in Cnn National Security analyst Juliette Kayyem and former Boston Police commissioner ed davis. So, juliette, i mean, did you get any answers to what you were hoping to hear . No. I mean, lets just be clear here. This is a nightmare for the families, let alone for reporters who are anxious to get the story right. Nothing about that press conference made me feel better, including talking about himself. I mean, there are 19 dead children with families that he is working hard, honestly, is like the least of our concern right heres the problem they have that they cannot explain. The entrance at 11 40. You have multiple Police Departments at 11 44. That guy should have been dead within a minute or two. There should have been no evacuations, no negotiations, nothing. Everyone knows this. And it didnt happen. Why he kept talking about negotiations, im like, what are we talking about . Its a man with a rifle walks into an elementary school. Were done talking. You would have every justification. So you got four minutes and this is where my second question is, when were these children killed . And i hate, i can be graphic, you know, is it in that fourminute period when he makes the right and the right and he gets in the classroom and this is a gun that can kill lots of people very quickly . Is it over this negotiation period . I dont think we have a clear sense when the majority of kids were killed and if its in that fourminute period, maybe you can explain it. If its any time after, you have a Law Enforcement presence there. You cannot explain it. And its a nightmare. Its just a nightmare. I think theyre trying to, you know, i think theyre realizing the extent to which there wasnt an adequate response. So some people are saying something to simone, others are saying things to you, allison. They got to get the story right. Not to cover themselves. Because they owe it to the family members. Because everyone is going to concoct some theory of what happened. If mistakes were made and they very likely were, they will come out. Theyve got to get ahead of this. But thats my you know, i am looking at the numbers here. I cant provide our viewers with any more clarity than i had 20 minutes ago. So your top take away from what we just watched . There are some important clues that i heard. It was not handled very well as far as getting the information out there. You know, we have a system in the United States called the National Incident Management System and under is that system, every Police Department in the country is trained to do certain things. To respond as we said before and immediately engage the shooter. Theres questions about that. One of the postimportant things i have heard in this was that the gunfire. Most of the fun fire happened immediately, happened as the suspect was entering into the classroom. If thats true and i ha it to be very spec about this, but you can kill a lot of people in a very short period of time with these military weapons. So if no one stopped the suspect from going in, he got in there and killed a bunch of people immediately and the 21 fire stopped, that may be a reason to pause. Im not trying to defend what happened here. I would have liked to have seen someone go right in and take him out. But if there is no gunfire continuing, then sacrificing people who are responding to the scene makes sense. Not having more victims, if you got the suspect isolated in an area and he has noability to shoot other people. Thats another reason why you would pause. We dont know what happened here. But the lack of direction and the lack of information thats coming out of here is a failure under the national Management System to put in a rub lick relations process so that that information is getting out. We heard that there was someone that encountered the suspect immediately. Now theyre saying that didnt happen. Thats the form of law. You sigh that everywhere. Its a result of them not getting the Public Information under control, to come out now two days later the idea of getting out in prompted of sit is post now. The assistant Deputy Director did say one thing that i think is important here. This is a tiny, tiny community. A small town. So now the federal government has to look at how much training did this Police Department have . Was the command structure that was there understanding of the emergency Management System was all about and the command and control. Those are all request es that arent answered yet. I see you nodding. We should say, yes, it is a very tiny town Police Department or sheriffs department. With you there was a huge you la enforcementry responsibility. Customs and Border Control showed you want. There was a huge response. But what are your thoughts . I think thats right. The federal asset, the Police Officer are all trained under the incident and command system and immediate rapid deemployment. So once you are talking about cvp and others, you really are going to fall into. We are getting tactical here, an incident command system. So they would know what to do. I think the commissioner raised this important point is once you are having a federal presence, everyone would fall into formation. So i, leak ed, i dont know if 11 40 to 11 44 a. M. Because we know what this weaponry can do is our sort or major loss of life moment. Right. And if that is the case, then we need to know that. We need to know that he walked in unimpeded, after about a 15minute walk after the car accident walks unimpeded into ra school and kills within four minutes. So, thats a very short time frame, hard to stop. You try to disable him. If the killings are happening after 11 44 when you have a presence, is it because of the small Police Department and they werent trained . Was there some dysfunction in the incident command system or you know the Immediate Response capabilities. Was he really impossible . Impossible to get to . Those are the questions that as someone that looked after the in fact. Those are the ones, as ed said, theyve lost this story. Theyve lost and thats the passion i have. I am thinking about the parents. They just want to know at this stagep theyre not getting their kids back. And the story, someone needs to take charge of the story, not to create fiction, but to actually create a time line and enable some people look bad or not heroic. You get that, that happens. But thats where they need to take control of this narrative. Thats a part of the training as well. All right. I want to bring in the former principal of Robb Elementary School. Thank you for being with me. You can, hope my, clear up some confusion about the building, about the School Resource officer. Lets start with how this shooter, we are told, entered the building. This back door corridor Law Enforcement officials, is that door typically locked . It is typically locked on. I would imagine most elementary and secondary campuses across the country because told you not be a door that the students would use to for example go to the library or the cafeteria or the main office. Its an exterior door that you dont need to go to unless you are roeving to go home on the school bus. Okay. So let me ask you now about the School Resource officer. Is this School Resource officer there every day through the the entire school day . Is that person supposed to be in the building for the full day . Tell us about that officers rule. I cant speculate on that, because i am no longer an employee of the all consolidated School District. Let me ask you this, when you were the principal, were there School Resource officers . There were School Resource officers in the School District, yes, there were. But there was not a singular officer assigned to each school with the exception, perhaps, of the high school. Okay. So no one assigned to robb elementary specifically. Were those School Resource officers and cruisers outside when they were there . Were they inside the School Building when you were principal . Absolutely. Which one . Would you ask the question again . If you are asking, the id the School Resources officers arrive on campus in Police Vehicles . Yes. No, my question is, and i apologize for not being clear. When you were principal and there were School Resource officers, were they inside the building when they were on campus . They were, absolutely. They would come inside, engage in conversations with students, just be present and supportive. If there is an emergency, a threat in the building, is there a system in place to alert teachers to alert the classrooms, to lock down, chose their doors . Absolutely. Absolutely. Its a part of the state law. Its something that is practiced on campuses across the state on at least a quarterly basis. Students and teachers support staff are very familiar with lockdown procedures. What were the specific lockdown procedures when you were principal . Notification of teachers that they needed to lock down through the years, we have learned that its best to call it what it is rather than use code words that can tend to confuse in a crisis moment. So, we