Barely days after 19 elementary school children and two teachers were shot to death by an 18-year old with two AR-15 style assault rifles, questions are swirling about the actions of local law enforcement, supported by video and photos apparently taken by those who were outside Robb Elementary School during the massacre. NCRM has not confirmed the authenticity of the photos or videos posted to social media.

“Frustrated onlookers urged police officers to charge into the Texas elementary school where a gunman’s rampage killed 19 children and two teachers, witnesses said Wednesday, as investigators worked to track the massacre that lasted upwards of 40 minutes and ended when the 18-year-old shooter was killed by a Border Patrol team,” the Associated Press reports.

“Go in there! Go in there!” nearby women shouted at the officers soon after the attack began, said Juan Carranza, 24, who saw the scene from outside his house, across the street from Robb Elementary School in the close-knit town of Uvalde. Carranza said the officers did not go in.

Multiple reports state police waited outside for those 40 minutes, or more, before taking action to neutralize the shooter. During that time, some have noted, it’s possible children who had been shot died of their wounds rather than receiving medical attention.

CNN’s Chief National Security Correspondent Jim Sciutto:

Texas police are saying a lot of things. They’re not saying why it took so long to go into the classroom.

— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) May 26, 2022

Veteran journalist Soledad O’Brien:

If these were the reporters’ children they’d be more blunt and less delicate. Why did police wait to rush in? Why did they ignore the pleas from parents—who we see in video begging the police to help their kids? These are not ‘tough questions’. But journalists are often reluctant https://t.co/conf5g3nYX

— Soledad O’Brien (@soledadobrien) May 26, 2022

Indeed, additional reports appear to show not only did police not storm the school, for reasons yet unknown, they appear to have prevented desperate parents from doing anything to help save their children, even using force, including a taser, to stop them. And in one case (below,) from the account of one of the children who survived published by CBS affiliate KENS5, police action may have led to the death of one of the students.

VICE News reports “Texas law enforcement officials are being strangely opaque about what actually happened during the shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas.”

“When asked how much time passed between the gunman arriving at the school and the gunman being killed, Texas’ Director of Public Safety Steve McCraw offered an indefinite response.”

“Forty minutes, an hour,” he said. “But I don’t want to give you a particular timeline.”

VICE adds that “officers ‘were responsible’ for containing the gunman in a classroom, McCraw said. (Spokespersons for the Texas Department of Public Safety had repeatedly told news outlets earlier that the suspect barricaded himself into the classroom and immediately started shooting.)”

NBC News correspondent covering national security and intelligence Ken Dilanian:

The Texas officials have glossed over this, but by their account, the gunman was first spotted outside the school by an armed school resource officer who did not fire at him, but instead confronted him and “followed him in” to the school. That needs to be explained.

— Ken Dilanian (@KenDilanianNBC) May 25, 2022

Matt Novak, a senior writer at the tech site Gizmodo, posted these tweets:

This video make so much more sense now. The cops literally stopped parents from helping their kids. pic.twitter.com/zhQfUjlpjd https://t.co/DqgZUH3uCC

— Matt Novak (@paleofuture) May 26, 2022

Not only did cops with long guns have their tasers out, ready to stop parents from saving their own children, it looks like the cops have one parent pinned to the ground.

You can hear one person yell, “what the fuck are you doing to him? Let him up!” pic.twitter.com/zW5V9FJ2r0

— Matt Novak (@paleofuture) May 26, 2022

This one is tragic:

At least one additional kid died directly because the cops were incompetent.

“When the cops came, the cop said: ‘Yell if you need help!’ And one of the persons in my class said ‘help.’ The [shooter] overheard and he came in and shot her,” the boy said. https://t.co/T89PC9ljcH pic.twitter.com/YMwah3X7ar

— Matt Novak (@paleofuture) May 26, 2022

Sawyer Hackett, a senior advisor to Julián Castro, the former Obama HUD Secretary and former Mayor of San Antonio, Texas, reposted these videos and offers some commentary:

This also took place hours after the shooting, and the officer is sharing lots of false information with news networks.

Was he misinformed by local police? Or intentionally spinning the story? https://t.co/vAQzsaES5q

— Sawyer Hackett (@SawyerHackett) May 26, 2022

This video is insane.

Dozens of cops outside the school as the shooter continues rampage. Parents almost ran inside since police wouldn’t. All of a sudden police are gun shy? https://t.co/CtswI3u9Eu

— Sawyer Hackett (@SawyerHackett) May 26, 2022

Even this editor from the right wing website Daily Caller says “it appears the police did everything wrong once the shooter was in the room.”

Police reportedly waited for up to an hour before breaching and killing the suspect. This goes against everything police are taught in the post-Columbine world.

Before Columbine, protocol was to sit and wait assuming it was a hostage situation. Not anymore. (2/8)

— David Hookstead (@dhookstead) May 26, 2022

Breaching a room with multiple windows and a door, again without getting into tactics, is very doable. Why did police not attempt it?

In close quarters combat done in light (this doesn’t apply to night vision and the dark), speed is everything. The fastest guys win. (5/8)

— David Hookstead (@dhookstead) May 26, 2022

A Dallas/Fort Worth television station cut away from Jimmy Kimmel’semotional monologue about the Robb Elementary school massacre that left 19 children and two adults dead.

ABC affiliate WFAA-TV interrupted the six-minute, comedy-free monologue with a string of commercials, starting with an in-house news spot, before airing the end of Kimmel’s opener, which he used for a three-minute ad for the gun violence prevention organization Everytown.org, reported the Star-Telegram.

“To my friends in Dallas who are asking: I do not know whether our @ABCNetwork affiliate @wfaa cut away from my monologue tonight intentionally or inadvertently but I will find out,” Kimmel tweeted. “In the meantime, here’s what you didn’t get to see.”

You can watch the clip below or at this link.

To my friends in Dallas who are asking: I do not know whether our @ABCNetwork affiliate @wfaa cut away from my monologue tonight intentionally or inadvertently but I will find out. In the meantime, here’s what you didn’t get to see https://t.co/tqfHoBHMwN

— Jimmy Kimmel (@jimmykimmel) May 26, 2022

A source at the TV station said the commercials were aired and part of the monologue was cut because the 10 p.m. newscast ran long, and an interview with “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane was also chopped up into segments that aired between commercial breaks.

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Kimmel called out elected officials, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and John Cornyn (R-TX), and urged them to take action to prevent another mass shooting.

“Once again we grieve for the little boys and girls,” Kimmel said, fighting back tears. “Whose lives have been ended and whose families have been destroyed. While our leaders on the right, the Americans in Congress and at Fox News and these other outlets warn us not to politicize this. They immediately criticize our president for even speaking about doing something to stop it, because they don’t want to speak about it because they know what they’ve done and they know what they haven’t done, and they know it’s indefensible, so they’d rather sweep this under the rug.”

“The reason they call them common-sense gun laws is because that’s what they are,” he added. “Eighty-nine percent of Americans want background checks before a gun can be purchased, which is the very least we can do.”

A Texas Republican state lawmaker said just one day after 19 elementary school students were shot and killed he opposes any new gun legislation for two reasons: the U.S. Constitution, and under existing laws prosecutors should just “convict” the shooters.

“What we want to know is what your solution is,” CNN host Alisyn Camerota told Rep. James White, who happens to be a former school teacher.

“We’ve all seen how quickly and creatively Texas—your local legislature—can act when it wants to, say, protect the unborn embryo,” Camerota added, referring to Texas’ vigilante abortion ban, as The Daily Beast reported. “Why not act with that alacrity to protect living, breathing 10-year-olds in this school behind me?”

“We have this thing called the Constitution,” White replied, even though the Texas abortion ban, under current law, violates at least the spirit of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision.

Like Texas Governor Greg Abbott and many other Republicans, and like the NRA, White then defended his desire to pass no legislation to help reduce gun violence by declaring the problem is actually one of mental health.

He said, “these young men, for some reason, they have some very disturbed emotional state.”

There is no evidence, according to Gov. Abbott, that this shooter had any documented mental health issues.

White then decided to propose utilizing existing law to reduce gun violence.

“At the end of the day,” he said, “we’re going to look at the people who do these acts, we’re going to convict them, and we’re going to punish them.”

Appearing flabbergasted, Camerota replied, “You can’t convict him, sir.”

“Sir you can’t convict him. He was killed. He was killed, along with 19 children in the school behind me.”

Watch:

“We’re going to look at the people who do these acts. We’re going to convict them and we’re going to punish them”

“Sir, you can’t convict him. He was killed along with 19 children in the school behind me” pic.twitter.com/Y5f6HZ0ZWU

— Acyn (@Acyn) May 25, 2022