Illustrating the "abject failure" of the response to the Uvalde schooling shooting, the top Texas law-enforcement official testified at a hearing that the officer husband of murdered teacher Eva Mireles tried to save her life but was stopped by school-district officers at the scene.

Texas Department of Public Safety Director Col. Steven McCraw told state senators Tuesday that Mireles' husband, Ruben Ruiz  – a police officer for the school district – was on the scene after the gunman entered the Robb Elementary School on May 24 and opened fire, KSAT-TV in San Antonio reported.

McCraw said Mireles, a fourth-grade teacher, had called Ruiz and told him "she had been shot and was dying."

"And what happened to him, is he tried to move forward into the hallway," McCraw said.