CNN’s Shimon Prokupecz Reflects on ‘Heart-Stopping’ Moment Texas Officials Admitted Shooting Response Mistakes: ‘I Couldn’t Believe It’
CNN’s Shimon Prokupecz described the “heart-stopping” sensation he experienced last week as he pressed officials on the Uvalde shooting in Texas, just to learn they didn’t take immediate action to stop it.
Prokupecz joined Brian Stelter on Sunday for Reliable Sources, where they discussed the delayed police response to the shooting that left 19 children and 2 adults dead at Robb Elementary School. The conversation revolved heavily around the changing timeline and decisions at the scene of Robb Elementary School, which have raised questions of whether Texas law enforcement has been withholding information to cover for their failure to act faster.
The CNN correspondent added, “I don’t think we have a full accounting as to what transpired” while law enforcement was outside of the classroom where the massacre was happening. As Prokupecz called for the release of the police’s radio transmissions during the shooting, the discussion turned to the press conference during which Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman Steven McCraw admitted there were major mistakes in the shooting response.
Prokupecz was among the reporters at that press conference, and he spoke of how shocked he was by the details and how he attempted to mentally process the implications.
“They came to me with the first question…when I asked [McGraw] what did the officers do to break into that door, and when he said to me “nothing at that time,” Brian, I couldn’t believe it. It was heartstopping for me. It was just like someone punched me. Seriously, like someone punched me in the stomach. To hear that, to hear that nothing at that time, they did nothing in those moments, in those critical moments when they should’ve been storming that door. By all accounts, every protocol in active shooting situations, you have to get to the shooter. I was shocked. I knew a lot didn’t make sense. I knew that something was wrong here. But I didn’t know…that it was this bad. I was just shocked. And the only thing I could do is say “why?” But I didn’t even know what else in that moment to ask, or where to go, because it was shocking to me that it was just “nothing at that time.”
For full context, here’s the transcript of that moment from the press conference:
PROKUPECZ: We just need you to stay at the microphones, otherwise the cameras. Thank you for doing this. And I do hope you stay here and take as many questions as possible. Did you say there were 19 officers gathered in the hallway or somewhat? What efforts were made to try and break through that door? You say it was locked. What efforts were the officers making to try and break through either that door or another door, get inside that classroom.
MCCRAW: But none of that time? The on-scene commander at the time, believed that it had transitioned from an active shooter to a barricaded subject.
PROKUPECZ: You have people who are alive, children who are calling 911 saying, please send the police. They are alive in that classroom. There are lives that are at risk.
MCCRAW: We’re well aware of that.
Watch above, via CNN.
