Cops didn’t go after shooter, thinking there was no more threat’

As children hid in classrooms from a gunman and begged for help, cops waited in a hallway more than 45 minutes before confronting the shooter, a top law enforcement official said Friday.

The commander on the scene believed the shooter was barricaded in a classroom at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde and was not a threat to the kids, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw said at a news conference.

“He was convinced at the time that there was no more threat to the children and that the subject was barricaded and that they had time to organize” to get into the classroom, McCraw said.

Instead, the shooter killed 19 students and 21 teachers before a Border Patrol agent killed him.

“Of course it was not the right decision. It was the wrong decision,” McCraw said.

Children repeatedly asked for help in 911 calls made from inside the Uvalde school on Tuesday.

“Please send the police now,” one student pleaded.

Suspected gunman Salvador Ramos crashed his truck near the entrance of the school around 11:28 a.m., less than minute after a teacher propped open a door leading into the building, McCraw told reporters during a Friday news conference. He stumbled from the vehicle and opened fire at a pair of men, who were walking over from a nearby funeral home, and then started toward the open door.

The first 911 call came from a teacher in the building around 11:30 a.m. At the same time, McCraw said the 18-year-old suspect started shooting at the school’s windows. Two minutes later, shots rang out from inside the building.

Police said Ramos barricaded himself in a classroom at the school, where he remained for up to an hour. About 20 responding officers were placed outside in the hall, but they failed to enter for another 45 minutes, when they finally obtained a master key from a janitor to unlock the door.

With News Wire Services