The decision not to allow police to immediately enter the elementary school classroom in Uvalde, Texas –site of this week’s deadly shooting — was wrong.

During a briefing by the director of the Texas department of Public Safety, Steven McCraw was critical of the police response; in particular the on-site commander’s decision to wait over 45-minutes before confronting and taking out the 18-year-old gunman.

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

”There’s no excuse for that.  But again, I wasn’t there.”

McCraw says the on-site commander; identified as the school district’s police chief, believed that the students were not at risk and that there was time to wait for a tactical team before a master key opened the classroom door.

But by that time, the gunman had killed 19 fourth-graders and two teachers.