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These cops ‘are victims, too’: Fox News contributor defends Uvalde police

May 28, 2022 | | Print Article

(Video: Fox News)

Amid a storm of criticism and conflicting timelines surrounding law enforcement’s response to the Uvalde school massacre in Texas, Fox News contributor and former Acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Tom Homan defended the police, arguing officers contained the “active, mobile” shooter in one classroom.

“They got him contained to one room,” Homan told Fox News’s Kayleigh McEnany on Friday’s Outnumbered. “Now that’s certainly not good for the people in that one room… but the officers maintained him and kept him in containment, which I think was a good thing.”

As BizPac Review reported, new details emerging from Uvalde contradict the initial reports from law enforcement officials.

It now appears that, as parents outside Robb Elementary were begging officers to enter the school, as 911 calls from inside the classroom were made by terrified children and as 19 police officers waited in the hallway, a commander was under the false impression that the gunman was no longer firing and lives were no longer at risk. An hour passed as the commander waited for a tactical team to obtain keys to the classroom before entering and ultimately killing the killer, Salvador Ramos.

 

Homan cited a lack of equipment for the delay in breaching the classroom and said the officers “saved a lot of lives.”

“So, people question why the police didn’t knock down the door earlier,” he said. “You’ve heard the term ‘funnel of death.’ They don’t have any of that equipment, they don’t have any of that training, so it puts them at risk.”

“I’m not a Monday morning quarterback,” Homan continued. “I’m just saying there’s a lot of cops here that did a lot of great things and, overall, saved a lot of lives.”

At a press conference on Friday, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw told reporters that the ill-informed officers who believed children’s lives were no longer at risk made “the wrong decision.”

“From the benefit of hindsight, where I’m sitting now, of course, it was not the right decision,” McCraw said. “It was the wrong decision. Period.”

According to Homan, “there’s gonna be lessons learned. Like McCraw said, the investigation isn’t over with yet.”

“But you know, until the investigation’s over, I think we’re jumping the gun,” he continued. “And some of these reporters, the way they’re firing those questions at McCraw I think was a little unfair.”

Homan noted that the police officers were also victims of Ramos’s rampage.

“These officers are never gonna be the same… And some of these officers are gonna need to get some help,” he said. “So I can guarantee, every one of these officers are questioning themselves every minute, every day, not sleeping, and remembering the carnage they’ll never forget. So these are victims, too.”

“But I think we gotta wait until the investigation is completely over before we start throwing officers under the bus,” Homan stressed. “Officers aren’t the bad guys. The shooter’s the bad guy.”

Melissa Fine
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