‘Seven Words That Will Forever Haunt’: CNN’s John King Sums Up TX Police Response

CNN’s John King perfectly summed up Friday the police response to Tuesday’s deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

King played a clip from Texas Department of Safety Director Steven McCraw in which he said the on-scene commander decided to delay entry into the Robb Elementary School classroom Tuesday because authorities believed the situation turned from an active-shooter situation to a situation where no children were at risk. McCraw said several students had called 911 during the time period begging for help.

“With a bit of hindsight where I’m sitting now, of course, it was not the right decision it was the wrong decision, period,” McGraw said. (RELATED: Witnesses Of Texas School Shooting Begged Police To Go In, Suggested Just Rushing In Themselves)

“Seven words that will forever haunt the community of Uvalde, Texas: of course it was the wrong decision,” King said.

CNN reporter Shimon Prokupecz said that the facts that have emerged about Tuesday’s response are “not good for the police here.”

“It is very devastating. And now you know why the police were hesitating, and why they were sort of giving us the run around. Because now we have the facts and they’re not good,” Prokupecz said. “They’re not good for the police here. They’re not good for anyone in law enforcement. The decision to not go inside that classroom was a deadly decision. Children were inside calling for 911, asking, ‘where are the police’ and they were not there, they were outside in the hallway or somewhere in the building.”

In one of the calls made by a student in the classroom to police at 12:03, the girl identified herself as being in room 112. At 12:10 the girl called back and “advised there were multiple dead,” according to McCraw.

“12:13 again she called on the phone. Again at 12:16 she called back and said there were 8 to 9 students alive,” McCraw said.

Eighteen-year-old Salvador Ramos opened fire in the classroom, killing 19 students and two teachers.