Many people have been trying to understand what the local, state, and federal police did after they arrived at the Robb Elementary School while an active shooter was killing children and teachers. And they wonder about conflicting accounts from officials.

The editorial board of the Washington Post says that Governor Abbott of Texas must create an independent commission. Frankly, Governor Abbott is so pro-gun that it’s hard to imagine that any commission appointed by him would produce anything but a whitewash of his vicious policies, which made it legal for an 18-year-old to buy military assault weapons and to carry them openly. His actions and policies should be part of an independent investigation, and that is not likely to happen if he chooses the commission members.

What’s needed in Uvalde, Texas, is a credible investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI.

The editorial board writes:

When police in Littleton, Colo., responded to reports of gunfire at Columbine High School in 1999, they did what they had been trained to do: set up a perimeter, summon specially trained SWAT and hostage teams, wait for demands and allow no one, including first responders, into the building. Hours passed before the building was secured, authorities realized the shooters had killed themselves, and the wounded received medical attention. Thirteen people — 12 students and a teacher — had been slaughtered.

Columbine resulted in fundamental changes in how law enforcement responds to mass shootings. The Columbine Review Commission formed by then-Gov. Bill Owens recommended in 2001 that “law enforcement policy and training should emphasize that the highest priority of law enforcement officers, after arriving at the scene of a crisis, is to stop any ongoing assault.” Active-shooter programs in which officers were trained to immediately target the gunman or gunmen became standard police protocol.

So why did it take 40 minutes to an hour before law enforcement authorities in Uvalde, Tex., stormed an elementary school classroom to stop a gunman who had gone on a shooting rampage? It is just one of the questions that parents whose children were killed, wounded or traumatized are asking — and it is one that authorities would do well to answer with clarity and urgency.

Since Tuesday’s mass shooting at Robb Elementary School, in which 19 children and two teachers were murdered, conflicting and confusing narratives have emerged. After initial accounts that the gunman had been confronted by a school resource officer and suggestions that there was an exchange of gunfire, a Texas law enforcement officer said on Thursday that the gunman entered the school “unobstructed” through a door that was apparently unlocked. Victor Escalon, a regional director at the Texas Department of Public Safety, said that Salvador Rolando Ramos, the alleged gunman who was killed when a Border Patrol tactical team burst into the room where he had been barricaded, did not initially encounter any law enforcement officers. Why the discrepancy?

Equally troubling is a harrowing video posted to a parent’s Facebook account that shows frantic family members on Tuesday begging police to take action. “Why let the children die? There’s shooting in there,” one woman pleaded. “They’re little kids, they don’t know how to defend themselves. … Six-year-old kids in there, they don’t know how to defend themselves from a shooter!” a man cried. Parents talked about rushing the building themselves, as they said police were just standing around. One parent was tackled to the ground. A national school safety expert told Post reporters that any delay in going inside will be hard to explain.

Make no mistake: The person responsible for the murder of these little children and brave teachers is the deranged 18-year-old who fired an AR-style rifle. But it is important to know whether errors were made that might have cost some lives. What lessons can be learned that might save lives in the future if — as sadly seems inevitable — there are more mass shootings? There needs to be a full public accounting. Just as the governor in Colorado once ordered a rigorous review of the events surrounding Columbine, so should Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

I asked the question yesterday as the news trickled out. More than 100 law officers converged on the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde while a shooter was killing students and teachers. Between 30-60 minutes assed before they broke into the classroom and shot the killer. Why did they wait so long when every second counted?

Parents and neighbors are asking the same question. Why the delay?

CBS reports:

Uvalde, Texas — Frustrated onlookers urged police officers to charge into the Texas elementary school where a gunman’s rampagekilled 19 children and two teachers, witnesses said Wednesday, as investigators worked to track the massacre that lasted upwards of 40 minutes and ended when the 18-year-old shooter was killed by a Border Patrol team.

“Go in there! Go in there!” nearby women shouted at the officers soon after the attack began, said Juan Carranza, 24, who saw the scene from outside his house across the street from Robb Elementary School in the close-knit town of Uvalde. Carranza said the officers did not go in.

Javier Cazares, whose fourth grade daughter, Jacklyn Cazares, was killed in the attack, said he raced to the school when he heard about the shooting, arriving while police were still gathered outside the building.

Upset that police were not moving in, he raised the idea of charging into the school with several other bystanders.

“Let’s just rush in because the cops aren’t doing anything like they are supposed to,” he said. “More could have been done.”

“They were unprepared,” he added.

Carranza said the officers should have entered the school sooner.

“There were more of them. There was just one of him,” he said…

Carranza, the neighbor, said he watched as the gunman, identified by authorities as Salvador Ramos, 18, crashed his truck into a ditch outside the school, grabbed his AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle and shot at two people outside a nearby funeral home who ran away uninjured.

Officials say he “encountered” a school district security officer outside the school, though there were conflicting reports from authorities on whether the men exchanged gunfire.

After running inside, the shooter fired on two arriving Uvalde police officers who were outside the building, said Texas Department of Public Safety spokesperson Travis Considine. The police officers were injured…

Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw told reporters that 40 minutes to an hour elapsed from when the gunman opened fire on the school security officer to when the tactical team shot him, though a department spokesman said later that they could not give a solid estimate of how long the gunman was in the school or when he was killed…

“The bottom line is law enforcement was there,” McCraw said. “They did engage immediately. They did contain (the shooter) in the classroom.”

Olivarez said the officers who first responded to the scene “were at a point of disadvantage” and were not able to make entry.

“There was no way they were able to make entry, especially with the amount of manpower that was on scene,” he said. “So at that point, their primary focus was to evacuate as many children as possible.”

A specialized tactical unit made of local, state and federal law enforcement officers were eventually able to enter the classroom, authorities said. Three officers were injured, and all are in good condition, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said.

McCraw commended the officers who engaged the shooter before the tactical unit entered, saying they saved lives by keeping him “pinned down” at his location.

“Obviously this is a situation we failed in the sense that we didn’t prevent this mass attack — but I can tell you, those officers that arrived on the scene and put their lives in danger, they saved other kids,” he said. “They kept him pinned down, and we’re very proud of that.”

So, commendations to everyone involved. “We’re very proud of that.” Governor Abbott is proud, so is Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. There were three good men with a gun who “engaged” the shooter. There were more than 100 good men and women with heavy weaponry who kept the killer pinned in one classroom. “Only” 21 died.

The dozens of officers debated what to do and who was in charge as the killer did his deadly work. They kept him “pinned down.” It was a single classroom, for God’s sake, not a bank vault! Wasn’t there one brave officer who would charge in and shoot the murderer dead before he finished off 21 beautiful souls? No. Thoughts and prayers. Maybe next time.