Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough and his crew went off on the police response in Uvalde after revelations the cops had equipment on hand early, but still waited to go in for an hour.
On Tuesday morning’s edition of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, co-host Mika Brzezinski reported with shock on new developments in the investigation into the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
Co-host Mika Brzezinski quavered as she read new details — first reported by The Austin American-Statesman — that scene incident commander Pete Arredondo prevented cops from going in even after a raft of specialized equipment showed up.
As Scarborough interrupted to exclaim how “unbelievable” the reporting is, Brzezinski said “Documents reviewed by The Austin American-Statesman reveal police officers were inside the school armed with high-powered rifles and the first ballistic shield at 11:52 a.m.”
“So that’s 19 minutes after the gunman entered the school, but they didn’t breach the door to take him down for another hour, for 58 more minutes. This photo from the Texas Tribune shows at least two ballistic shields on the scene at 12:04 for just about one minute after –”
Scarborough cut her off, saying “I’m sorry what the hell? What the. What the hell were they doing?! What the – What the hell was their on-site leader telling them to do?”
Brzezinski ticked through more disturbing information
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Well, that’s that’s the issue, actually. One minute after a student called 911 from inside the classroom pleading for help, officers still didn’t enter the classroom for another 46 minutes. The new revelation contradicts the statement from police that officers didn’t have the proper equipment to confront the killer. The Statesman reports that officers grew increasingly impatient. This is important, Joe. One of them saying “If there’s kids in there, we need to go in there,” another responded. “Whoever’s in charge determines that.” A transcript of body camera footage from officers showed the commander on the scene. Uvalde High School Police Chief Pete Arredo was trying to find keys to open the classroom door, even though officials say they do not believe officers had tried to open the door. NBC News has not been able to verify the documents. A lawyer for Arradondo did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the reports last night. He has defended his actions on that day and has previously said we responded to the information that we had and had to adjust to whatever we faced. And Joe, I know we’re going to bring in Bill Bratton, but just to the point that you’re making about police in general being afraid to go in,
I. I honestly think when it comes out, when you listen to all the body camera video possible, you’re going to hear from a lot of cops that would have done anything to get the greenlight to go in there.JOE SCARBOROUGH: The well, the cops the cops wanted to go in –MIKA BRZEZINSKI:They will live with that for the rest of their lives–JOE SCARBOROUGH: A lot of the cops wanted to go in, but they had the guy on the scene telling them to hold back, fumbling around, looking for keys–MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Everything.JOE SCARBOROUGH: He was just stalling is going to say he’s killing time. Well, while there were kids inside that were bleeding out that were calling 911 that were dying, that could have been saved if he had done his job.
Watch above via Morning Joe.