CLAY: I want to potentially go back to this press conference as we’re getting all sorts of questions. The spokesperson here, Stephen McCraw, breaking down… He’s the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety. He is… If you’re watching on television right now, which I know most of you are not, but he’s now standing in front of a diagram showing you how the suspect got into the building, where he went, what these classrooms looked like — classrooms number 111 and 112.

I think this is incredibly important information because this is really almost the equivalent of a plane crash. And you try to figure out how did this end up happening by reconstructing the events. He now has admitted, by the way, that it was the wrong decision to wait to breach the doors in retrospect. And again, this is what I believe is so difficult for many of you out there listening right now to comprehend: 11:33 a.m., Central time the suspect entered the school in Texas.

By 11:35, there were three police officers entering that school as well, two minutes behind him, and yet they did not breach the door and kill the suspect until 12:50. That’s an hour and 15 minutes that he was inside this locked classroom with these kids and these teachers. Also, chilling details: Many different 911 calls being made beginning, reportedly, at 12:03. And again, they itemized all these 911 calls, which I would imagine at some point will be released.

And I hope the people who made those 911 calls are all alive. He said some of them are — he didn’t say all of them, in response to a question. But 911 calls being made from inside of these classrooms — 12:03, 12:10, 12:13, 12:16, 12:19, 12:21, 12:36, 12:43, 12:47, 12:50, and 12:51. Some of those calls made by children, one of them saying, “Please send police now.” What were they doing? How could you be receiving these calls starting at 12:03, 911 calls from inside of these classrooms?

And it takes 47 minutes after the first 911 call for these guys to go in? How is that remotely possible? Forty-seven minutes! You know when you get that first 911 call — at least that’s been reported — at 12:03 that there are people who are alive in those rooms. The minute that you get a 911 call to notify you that there are people still alive, that there are children still alive in those rooms, how do you not breach the door and go after the suspect? The doors were locked, but they just said the janitor gave them the key.

If you are a police officer, how do you allow this to happen? Isn’t this the number one reason why you would want to become a police officer, to protect children from bad guys? Forty-seven minutes from 12:03, that 911 call, the first one that is reportedly arriving, inside of these classrooms with the madman, with a gun, and it takes you 47 minutes to breach the door and kill the suspect inside? I hope that he didn’t kill any more people during those 47 minutes. But can you imagine being a parent, knowing that your kids are behind those doors with a madman in there?

I mean, I’m gonna tell you the truth: There are a lot of dads and moms that would have tried to go in there on their own, who aren’t professional policemen, who aren’t professional SWAT team members. Guys, they were in the school two minutes after this guy was, and they allowed him to sit in that classroom with those kids from 11:35 until 12:50? I don’t blame any of those parents that were losing their mind outside. You’ve probably seen some of those viral videos.

Think about how you would feel if you thought your kids might be behind locked doors with the madman with a gun, the police had the key to the door, and they wouldn’t try to breach it. It’s been 72 hours since this shooting. And again, I want to make it clear, this killer is responsible. But how we respond to people seeking to do violence to us is an important part of what our entire public policy and society should be. And it feels like many of these details as they come out that we had an all-systems failure.

The door — again, I haven’t heard a more explanation, but a teacher propped up the door at 11:27 — would have otherwise been locked. Why did the door get propped open? Why was there not a lockdown order given inside the school when there’s somebody firing shots outside for multiple minutes? Why did the killer get inside of these classrooms and be able to lock it and they weren’t able to lock it from the inside before he got there? And now that we know that there was 911 calls, many of them…

I jotted down all the times, like 10 or 11 different 911 calls made from inside by both teachers and students. They also say that there were more shots fired going on inside of this classroom after he locked the door. What in the world is going on? Who’s making these decisions, and how did they make such bad decisions? (sigh) I’m gonna be honest. I mean, I was hoping it’s Friday, going into Memorial Day Weekend. I wanted to be talking about honoring all the soldiers and everybody else out there.

But the incompetence that we are now seeing was involved in this response to this shooter is so ultimately devastating for so many of you out there. And I bet for a lot of the officers that were on the scene. There are reports out there that these Border Patrol guys were begging to be able to go in and they weren’t allowed to go in. They said they arrived at 12:15, probably driving a hundred miles an hour to get there, and they weren’t allowed to go in ’til 12:50. It’s what they’re trained to do.

The police were inside two minutes after him. And they just allowed him to lock himself into the room with kids and stayed outside for an hour and 15 minutes? I’m telling you, when these 911 calls come out — and there are gonna be hard to listen to, ’cause you can imagine those little kids trying to call 911 and begging for the police to come in. Teachers begging too. Some of the voices on those 911 calls, those people may now be dead. What in the world were they doing, and who in the world was making the decisions on that day?

And how did they fail so badly?

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

CLAY: More and more of the details come out about the response. A teacher propped a door open. Why in the world did the teacher prop the door open? That is how this suspect was able to enter the school. Maybe the teacher was… They haven’t asked a lot of questions about that. That’s obviously a really important aspect, I would imagine, of this investigation. Maybe the teacher was trying to look outside to see whether or not there were shootings going on, the gun being fired.

But you just look back at all of these different cataclysmic decisions that all ran together that led to 19 kids and two teachers losing their lives, and you just think, “If you just have the door locked, if the police just go in full bore immediately when they know there’s a madman with a gun in the school, if the teachers had locked the doors inside of the school… Was there a lockdown ordered?” They’re now admitting it was the wrong decision to wait. But, I mean, I’m looking at my notes — and again this just happened this hour. We started off with this press conference to begin the show today.

At 12:16, they get a call; they’re told that eight or nine students are still alive inside. It’s a teacher, and she’s asking for help. When you get that call, how is your immediate response not, “We’re going now”? I just… I don’t understand. Whoever was making decisions on that day inside of that Texas school, he froze. That’s the only thing I can think of. You’re getting calls from inside of these classrooms and you’re being told that kids are still alive and there’s a madman with a gun in there and they’re begging you to come in and it takes you over a half hour after the call from the teacher?

I just don’t understand how that’s possible. I really do not understand how that’s possible. Here, I want to play a cut with you about the door breach. This is from the director of Texas Department of Public safety, Steven McCraw, on waiting to breach the door. He now says in hindsight that was the wrong decision. Ya think? Listen.

MCCRAW: The decision was made on the scene. I wasn’t there. But the same point in time, you know, a decision was made that this was a barricaded-subject situation and there was time to retrieve the keys and wait for a tactical team with the equipment to go ahead and breach the door and take on the subject at that point. That was the decision. That was the thought process that particular point in time.

With the benefit of hindsight where I’m sitting now, of course it was not the right decision. It was a wrong decision. Very… There’s no excuse for that. But again, I wasn’t there. I’m just telling you, from what we know, we believe there should have been an entry as soon as you can. Hey, when there’s an active shooter, the rules change. It’s no longer… Okay? It’s no longer a barricaded subject, you don’t have time, you don’t worry about a matter of perimeters.

CLAY: I just… I mean, how is it possible that someone could make the decision to leave those kids and those teachers inside of a locked room with an armed murderer for an hour and 15 minutes? I just… It is infuriating that someone could make that decision.