Houston fire chief says mistakes were made that allowed owner to flee after day care center fire killed four children. Terry Garrison says Jessica Tata was treated as a victim. Raw video from press conference.

Coverage earlier today with timelines from investigators & prosecutors

Houston’s fire chief stood up this afternoon amid the accusations going back and forth between his department and the Harris County District Attorney’s Office to say mistakes were made in the handling of the investigation of last Thursday’s day care center fire that left four children dead and three injured. Chief Terry Garrison told reporters he owes the families of the children an apology after the owner of the day care center Jessica Tata fled to Nigeria. Investigators determined that Tata has gone to the store at the time the fire broke out leaving the young children without supervision.

While earlier in the day HFD released a timeline showing investigators difficulty and frustration in trying to get an arrest warrant and a search warrant from the DA’s office, Chief Garrison said they put too much trust in Jessica Tata and her attorney and did not put her under surveillance:

Here are excerpts from an article from KTRK-TV:

Garrison said instead of keeping tabs on Tata’s whereabouts, the department was gathering more information to try to get an arrest warrant from the DA’s Office by interviewing the parents, witnesses and watching surveillance video from a store where Tata allegedly had been shopping around the time of the fire.

“At the time, we weighed our decision on a few things — we felt like she was a person who made a mistake and we trusted her attorney who said she was going to talk to us,” Garrison said. “We believed Ms. Tata and her attorney that she was going to be made available to talk.”

Chief Garrison says if had to do it over again, he would personally follow Tata to make sure she didn’t leave. They, after all, had a Crime Stoppers tip she was a flight risk. They thought they had probable cause to arrest her. While they debated with the district attorney for days over charges, no one was watching Tata to make sure she kept her word.

The district attorney said they could not file charges until they determined Tata did in fact leave the children alone. Witnesses told investigators the children were home alone when the fire started.

Garrison deflected any suggestion that he was frustrated with the DA’s Office for not filing charges against Tata earlier than Sunday.

“When I said I was frustrated — I’m frustrated that Ms. Tata is not here to answer to these charges,” said Garrison. “I think the DA’s office is as frustrated as any of us.”

The fire chief stated that he is proud of the fire department and that the department will evaluate its actions during this investigation.