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'There's only so much BS you can take': Tucker Carlson slams police for delay in taking down Uvalde killer

Fox News host Carlson said he was horrified about the hour-long gap between 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos entering the school and being shot dead

Tucker Carlson has challenged Texas law enforcement about their explanations surrounding the deadly shooting in Uvalde, calling their conflicting accounts "BS" and describing their handling of the situation as a "scandal" and a "moral crime."

The Fox News star, 53, said he was horrified by reports of an hour-long gap between 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos entering the school and being shot dead. Carlson blasted Victor Escalon — a regional director for Texas's department of public safety — after he said officers were waiting for negotiators to arrive before storming Robb Elementary School, where 19 children and 2 were killed in the May 24 shooting.

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Carlson admitted on Thursday night, May 26, that he was normally pro-police and rarely criticized their actions, but he noted that "no matter how pro-law-enforcement you are, we are, there's only so much B.S. you can take in the face of a tragedy like this." The Fox News host demanded to know why the authorities changed their story. They had initially said a security guard shot at Ramos, but later said that Ramos had barricaded himself inside before it emerged that the officers needed a key to get into the classroom he was holed up in.

"So two days after this massacre, authorities are slowly admitting that everything they told us was untrue," Carlson said. "So the second the shooting starts anywhere at any time, things get very confusing. They used to call it the fog of war, it's entirely real. It's hard to figure out exactly what happened when people start getting killed."

"But in the big questions, it's very obvious immediately," he continued. "Was there a school resource officer who exchanged fire with the gunmen? That's not something you would imagine. That either happened or it didn't and you would know right away if it happened or it didn't. It didn't happen, but they said it did happen. That's a lie. Why did they lie?"

Carlson said a full disclosure was needed to learn from mistakes, citing the thorough investigations that follow plane crashes to prevent a repeat of the disaster. "So the point is not to point fingers or blame people," Carlson said. "Nobody wants a school shooting, everyone's heart is broken by it. But the authorities are not allowed to lie to us in the aftermath of an event like this."

The news host said there were gaping questions about failures in procedure that were still unanswered. "In all, there was a 16-minute gap until the police showed up and responded," Carlson noted. "So why did that take so long? That is a fair question. In fact, it's a critical question. Even at the Parkland school shooting, when police staged outside and students were being murdered, police wound up inside the building 11 minutes after the shooter. But in this case, it was 16 minutes. Why was that? We have a right to know. But today police wouldn't say."

The Fox anchor showed clips of Texas Governor Greg Abbott lauding law enforcement and said he wanted to believe Abbott, but the information was conflicting. Carlson also showed a controversial explanation for the delay from Escalon and said it was outrageous. "Officers were there, the initial officers, they received gunfire," the Texas department of public safety's south regional director said on Thursday, May 27. "They don't make entry initially because of the gunfire they are receiving. We have officers calling for additional resources. Everybody that's in the area, tactical teams, we need equipment, we need specialty equipment, we need body armor, we need precision riflemen, negotiators."

"We are waiting for specialized equipment?" Carlson wondered. "You have an 18-year-old with a firearm and little kids being killed. What kind of specialty of equipment do you need? Negotiators? Really? As children are being murdered?"

The broadcaster then showed widely shared social media footage of parents trying to get to their wards in school. While the clips could have been filmed after the gunman was immobilized, Carlson said it would be devastating if the videos were filmed during an active shooter situation. "It seems apparent that when that video was shot, the gunman was still alive with the firearm in the school with children in the school. A Texas official later suggested on camera that while all of this was happening, some members of law enforcement in Texas went into the school to get their own children out," Carlson said, referring to a report. "Is that true? If it is true it's a moral crime at the very least."

The journalist also noted how mother Angeli Rose Gomez told the Wall Street Journal that she drove 40 miles to the Uvalde school and was stopped by police, only to escape them and enter the school. "This mother was cuffed, freed, ran into the school, and still had time to get her kids out as the police stood outside," Carlson said. "Now, if that's true it's a scandal." The newscaster concluded by saying, "We should demand the truth, we should demand to know what happened. The children who were murdered deserve at least that."