The families of the children and teachers murdered at Robb Elementary last May have one more date — the end of the year — and few additional answers after another Uvalde briefing by Director Steve McCraw took place at the Department of Public Safety Commission meeting on Thursday.

The Public Safety Commission pushed the topic of the Uvalde to the top of its agenda and cut its typical awards presentation out of respect for the Uvalde families. After a half-hour of emotional testimony from the victims’ relatives — including some calls for his resignation — McCraw said he did not expect the Uvalde families to ever forgive him or his agency. The mass shooting at Robb Elementary took the lives of 19 children and two teachers.

“There’s nothing I can say that can alleviate your pain, period. It’s not going to happen. I’m not that eloquent,” McCraw said, addressing the families in the audience. “I can tell you that that Friday, at that press conference, was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life, to stand up there and say that we had failed, plain and simple.”

McCraw told a CNN reporter in September that he would resign as the leader of the Department of Public Safety if his troopers “had any culpability” in the response to the Uvalde school shooting in May.

On Thursday, McCraw admitted the shooter on the Robb Elementary campus — a high school dropout who shot his grandmother in the face before heading to the school campus with two assault-style rifles and hundreds of rounds of ammunition — could have been taken out in the first 10 minutes.

“There were enough officers. There was enough equipment. There was enough knowledge, enough information to do what needed to be done immediately,” McCraw said, acknowledging it should have been resolved rather than waiting more than an hour for backups. “That’s the active shooter protocol. There’s no time for shields. There’s no time for weapons. There’s no time for strategies. There’s no time for evacuations, even.”

The protocol is very clear, McCraw said. It’s an active shooter. Stop the killing. Stop the dying.

“I can tell you this. If DPS, as an institution failed — failed the families, failed the school or failed the community of Uvalde, then, absolutely, I need to go,” McCraw said later in the meeting. “I can tell you this right now — DPS as an institution — did not fail the community, plain and simple. And there were actions, I can tell you, there were things that we aren’t proud about.”

Two DPS troopers were in the Robb building within 10 minutes, McCraw said. A third was inside within 22 minutes, and a fourth officer arrived two minutes later. One of those first officers, Sgt. Juan Maldonado, was fired this month.

McCraw’s answers won’t satisfy those who have called for his resignation, including Sen. Roland Gutierrez (D-San Antonio). Gutierrez mentioned new body camera footage of DPS troopers on the Robb Elementary School campus during the massacre — reported by Sinclair San Antonio on Wednesday night — that showed officers declining to confront the shooter.

“Law enforcement knew there were kids inside,” Gutierrez said. “If you have not seen the footage of last night’s television reporting, we have new coverage leaked of DPS troopers standing outside, philosophizing about how this happens so often, saying to themselves, ‘Hey, there’s kids in there, we need to go in. Are you going to put yourself in danger? You gonna put yourself in danger?’ That was said on multiple occasions.”

That wasn’t said by the school superintendent or the school district’s top cop, Gutierrez said. That wasn’t said by the Uvalde PD. That was said by DPS troopers who decided they wouldn’t open a window because “’I’m gonna get clapped,’” said Gutierrez, quoting the conversation.

Brett Cross, who has camped out at the Uvalde Consolidated ISD administration building to confront school leaders, was even more direct when McCraw opened the floor for questions.

“So, your officers were in there within 10 minutes? Are they not representatives of your department? Therefore, there would be culpability?” Cross asked. “Therefore, if you are a man of your word, then you would retire. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like you’re going to do that. Because you keep talking in circles and doing all that mess and everything.”

Cross — looking directly at McCraw — said the DPS leader could get as irritated as he wanted.

“I lost my damn son,” Cross said, speaking of 10-year-old Robb victim Uziyah Garcia. “Your anger is not going to match mine, my man.”

“Well, guess what? I’m not angry,” McCraw said. “I’m hurt. You know, if anything else, I am absolutely devastated about what happened to Uvalde.”

“And are you a man of your word?” Cross asked.

“Absolutely,” McCraw said.

“Then resign,” Cross said, before being cut off for the next question.

Another speaker, Manual Rizo, said the Uvalde community was at war with itself — unable to heal — because of so many unanswered questions. Rizo, the uncle of victim Jackie Cazares, said Uvalde was split on whether McCraw should resign. 

Additional facts McCraw did provide about the DPS investigation at the meeting were these: The investigation of the DPS officers who responded to Robb Elementary School — 91 were among the 376 officers on site — will be completed by the end of the year. The Federal Bureau of Investigation participated, from the beginning, in that review.

“Every responding officer needs to be accountable for their actions,” McCraw said. “When did they arrive? What were they told? What did they know? And, then, what did they do? Plain and simple. And I don’t care how high it goes. All those things are important.”

Part of the individual officer culpability also will come down to the results of individual autopsies, McCraw said. The timing of each death is also part of the investigation.

“How many kids did die in that room — or teachers die — because they missed that magic hour you talked about, Sen. Gutierrez, the 15 minutes or whatever it took to get them that?” McCraw said. “Because it’s not just stop the shooting. You’ve got to count when we got to stop the dying. They were in there with an active shooter. And we didn’t go through the door, and we didn’t go through the windows. And we should have done it.”