UVALDE, Texas, May 26 (Reuters) – The Texas school massacre gunman entered unopposed door without question and then killed 19 children and two teachers while hiding in his classroom during a hour before a tactical team came in and killed him. police said Thursday.
The latest official details from the Texas Department of Homeland Security (DPS) about Tuesday’s mass shooting differed widely from initial police reports and raised questions about elementary school security measures and the response of police forces. the order.
The school district of Uvalde, Texas, about 80 miles (130 km) west of San Antonio, has a permanent policy of closing all entrances, including classroom doors, as a security measure. But a student told Reuters that some doors were left open on the day of the shooting to allow visiting parents to come and go for an awards day event.
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The recently detailed timeline came hours after videos surfaced showing desperate parents outside Robb Elementary School during the attack. Officers were asked to storm the building and some parents had to be restrained.
The human toll from the crash, which is the deadliest shooting of an American school in almost a decade, was deepened by the news that the husband of one of the murdered teachers died on Thursday of a heart attack while preparing for his wife’s funeral. Read more
In a briefing for reporters, DPS spokesman Victor Escalon said the gunman, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, arrived safely at the school grounds after crashing his truck nearby. . The butchery started 12 minutes later.
Preliminary police reports had it that Ramos, who went to school from his home after shooting and injuring his grandmother there, confronted a school police officer as he ran towards the school. ‘school. However, no armed agents were present when Ramos arrived at the school, Escalon said.
The suspect crashed his van near 11:28 a.m. (1628 GMT), opened fire on two people at a funeral home across the street, then climbed a fence on the school property and went enter one of the buildings through an unblocked back door at 11:40 a.m. (1640 GMT), Escalon said.
Two responding officers entered the school four minutes later, but took cover after Ramos shot them several rounds, Escalon said.
The shooter then barricaded himself in the fourth-grade classroom of his victims, mostly 9- and 10-year-olds, for an hour before a U.S. Border Patrol tactical team entered the room and shot dead, Escalon said. Officers reported hearing at least 25 shots from the classroom early in the siege, he said. Read more
The one-hour interval before border guards arrived seemed to be at odds with the approach taken by many law enforcement agencies to immediately confront “active shooters” in schools to stop the bloodshed. .
“DIFFICULT QUESTION”
When asked if the police should have made a mass entry earlier, Escalon replied, “This is a difficult question,” adding that authorities will provide more information as the investigation progresses.
He described a chaotic scene after the initial exchange of gunfire, with officers calling for support and evacuating students and staff.
Crosses with the names of the victims of a school shooting, are shown in a monument outside Robb Elementary School, after a gunman killed nineteen children and two teachers, in Uvalde, Texas, USA, on the 26th May 2022. REUTERS / Marco Bello
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In a video posted on Facebook by a man named Angel Ledezma, parents can be seen breaking the yellow police ribbon and shouting at officers to enter the building.
“It’s been an hour and they still can’t get all the kids out,” Ledezma said in the video. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Another video posted on YouTube showed officers restricting at least one adult. A woman can be heard saying, “Why let the children die? There are shots inside.”
“We have guys coming in to have kids,” an agent is heard telling the crowd. “They’re working.”
‘AWARDS DAY’
Investigators were still looking for a reason, Escalon said. Ramos, who dropped out of high school, had no criminal record or a history of mental illness. Minutes before the attack, however, he had written an online message saying he was about to “shoot an elementary school,” according to Gov. Greg Abbott.
Escalon said why a back door of the school building was left uninsured.
Miguel Cerrillo, 35, and his 8-year-old daughter, Elena, a third-year student at Robb, said the door used by the shooter was usually locked.
“But that day they weren’t closed because it was awards day, and some parents were coming in through those doors,” said Elena, who was at school at the time of the shooting. “The parking lot was very crowded in front, so people were parking in the back and using that door.”
At least 17 people, including children, were also injured in the massacre.
Uvalde County, one of the poorest in Texas, has four police officers – a chief, a detective and two officers – to patrol nine schools in its district, with some “secondary” campuses assigned to a security guard, according to the site. school district website.
Teachers receive annual safety training and students receive instructions on blockades, evacuations and other security procedures, he said. Robb Elementary is enclosed within a perimeter fence.
The attack, which came 10 days after 10 people were killed by an 18-year-old gunman at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, has rekindled a national debate over firearms. U.S. President Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats have vowed to push for new arms restrictions, despite Republican resistance. Read more
Biden is due to travel to Uvalde on Sunday.
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Report by Gabriella Borter and Brad Brooks in Uvalde, Texas; Additional reports by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago, Doina Chiacu in Washington, Andrew Hay in Taos, New Mexico, and Costas Pitas in Los Angeles; written by Joseph Ax and Steve Gorman; edited by Jonathan Oatis and Cynthia Osterman
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