Speaking at a Friday news conference, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott revealed that he had been “misled” on the timeline of the Uvalde school shooting.
“Yes, I was misled. I am livid about what happened,” Abbott said in response to a reporter’s question.
“I was on this very stage two days ago, and I was telling the public information that had been told to me in a room just a few yards behind where we’re located right now,” Abbott said.
The governor said he had relied on notes he had taken during the briefing with law enforcement officials and others.
“The information that I was given turned out in part to be inaccurate, and I’m absolutely livid about that,” he said.
Abbott called for the Texas Rangers and the FBI to “get to the bottom of every fact with absolute certainty,” demanding answers for the families whose “lives have been destroyed.”
“They need answers that are accurate, and it is inexcusable that they may have suffered from any inaccurate information whatsoever,” he said.
Abbott’s remarks come as the law enforcement response to the shooting is heavily scrutinized.
Should the police response to the Uvalde shooting be investigated?
“There will be ongoing investigations that detail exactly who knew what when. Who was in charge of what strategy? Why was that particular strategy employed?” Abbott said.
“Bottom line would be, why did they not choose the strategy that would have been best to get in there and to eliminate the killer and to rescue the children?”
The governor told the public that law enforcement needed to earn community trust “by doing exactly what they’re supposed to do from this point on.”
Conflicting information on the timeline of the shooting circulated after the Tuesday massacre.
Some reports claimed that a police officer engaged the shooter outside of Robb Elementary School before he gained access to the building. This proved to be inaccurate.
Some have questioned why law enforcement didn’t rush into the school immediately as the shooter targeted children.
Uvalde law enforcement state they didn’t enter the classroom because they thought the scene “transitioned from an active shooter to a barricaded subject”. pic.twitter.com/B2Oo5pHBd5
— Andrew Kimmel (@andrewkimmel) May 27, 2022
Ultimately, an off-duty Border Patrol agent entered the school and neutralized the shooter.
