Former Detroit Police Chief James Craig, now a GOP candidate for governor of Michigan, said Friday on Newsmax that while he was glad to hear law enforcement officers were able to get into Uvalde's Robb Elementary School within four minutes after school shooter Salvador Ramos entered the building, it's still critical to find out more about the breach that allowed him to get in.
"The officers probably didn't know what they were being confronted with," Craig said on Newsmax's "National Report." "I've been involved as a chief, certainly as a command officer, that when there's an active shooter situation, you must go in. You cannot wait."
However, when the officers don't know the building's layout and there is a call involving a breach, that poses a challenge, Craig said, and he does not know if anyone can say the officers in Uvalde were delayed.
"Within four minutes, they were onsite, and certainly the officer that fired the fatal shot, certainly they were heroes," Craig said. "Even despite taking fire, they were inside trying to resolve this situation."
There have been several conflicting stories about whether the shooter had been confronted by police before he entered the school and other questions, and Craig said that he prides himself on his time in Detroit and that while information was released quickly after the incidents, it was also as accurate as possible because the community deserves to know what is going on.
"I am not surprised that there is a lot of frustration right now with family members because they were told one thing yesterday," Craig said. "You've got to get information out very timely and accurately. Now in these type of situations, they're chaotic. Things change. You can talk to three or four different law enforcement at the scene. You don't get four different stories, but you've got to do it in a very timely way."
Still, the stories change, but a disclaimer can be made to inform the public of that, said Craig.
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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