elementary school, could have, should have been confronted sooner. parents demanding answers. why? why were police reluctant to immediately engage with the gunman? one explanation the texas department of public safety initially gave to cnn is that the officers could have been shot or killed, but we now know the mind-set goes directly against texas protocol for school shooter situations, which uvalde police trained for just two months ago. the manual states as first responders, we must recognize that innocent life must be defended. a first responder unwilling to place the lives of the innocent above their own safety should consider another career field. armed officers circled the building and up to 19 of them were inside a school hallway just feet away, kids and teachers in two classrooms were utterly helpless against the gunman. young kids, some covered in the blood of their friends dialed 911 begging for help. nearly 80 minutes after the gunman first entered the building he
it s heartbreaking. the community coming out and pouring out their hearts in this way. so i ll ask our photojournalist harlan to slowly pan over and you can see this area that s to the right of me, there was a news crew here. that crew has left, and that is the state trooper that i was just telling you about. you see he s also taking the flowers that people bring and laying them down, and it s quiet here. the loudest sound is the hum of our satellite trucks and our live trucks and the fans that are blowing to keep the equipment cool, but there s so much hurt. there s so much pain. just a few blocks away from here i spoke to some teachers in a neighboring district, and they are upset. they said it was the instinct of those teachers, the two who died at this school behind me to jump in front of the shooter and shield their students, and they want to know why didn t the officers come in. and as the talk continues about
possibly arming educators with guns, they say that s not what they want. they want the officers to come in and there s a lot of finger pointing and blame happening too, jim. absolutely, and people are sick of the finger pointing. they re sick of the blame game. they want answers, but that scene that you just painted there and thank you to harlan so much for pointing the camera and showing us that as well. it just breaks your heart that they have a police officer who is willing to go up there and take a picture of folks, you know, laying down flowers and so on. it just goes to how this is such a just a heart wrenching situation down there. thank you so much. appreciate it. thanks for that live report. with growing outrage surrounding the police response in uvalde, some parents are calling for accountability for the delayed response. we re joined now by cnn law enforcement analyst and former washington, d.c., metropolitan police officer michael fanone, and cnn counterterrific analy