Lawmakers help a family after they laid flowers on a monument after a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas on May 26, 2022. BRANDON BELL / Getty Images
On the day of the Robb Elementary School massacre in Uvalde, Texas, George Rodriguez waited six and a half hours to see if his grandson, a student at the school, was alive or dead. The family went to the village Civic Center, where police were transporting surviving children. But José Flores, 10, never arrived.
“We didn’t have any information,” Mr. Rodriguez, 72, in an interview Thursday. “They wouldn’t tell you.”
At around 6 pm that day, he received a call from Jose’s father, who had found the boy in the city hospital. Mr. Rodriguez rushed. When he arrived, his grandson had died.
Mr. Rodriguez recalled that hospital staff stopped him at the door to tell him that the boy had lost his life, his voice broken as he recounted the moment two days later, standing in the sun on Robb Street.
The unbearable time that families spent that day not knowing if their children were alive has led to a scrutiny of the police response at the butcher shop, which left 19 students and two teachers dead.
The city of Uvalde in Texas was surprised to find itself at the center of the arms debate
Texas Elementary School Shootout: What We Know About the 21 Victims So Far
At a news conference on Thursday, law enforcement officials released the first specific calendar of the day. But they asked as many questions as they answered.
An hour passed between the first time police arrived at the school and the shooting of the suspect, according to Victor Escalon, regional director of the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Asked what happened during that hour and whether officers could or should have entered earlier, Mr. Escalon said it is still being investigated.
“You have to understand that this is a small town. We have people from Eagle Pass, Del Rio, Lareno, San Antonio, all responding to a small community,” he told reporters at the intersection outside the school.
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Victims of Robb Elementary School Massacre in Uvalde, Texas.Reuters
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Esmeralda Bravo, downtown, has a photo of her granddaughter, Nevaeh, one of the victims of the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas.Jae C. Hong / The Associated Press
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Eliahana Cruz Torres, one of the victims of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. ELIAHANA TORRES FAMILY / Reuters
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Professor Eva Mireles, one of the victims of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. EVA MIRELES FAMILY / Reuters
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Tess Mata, one of the victims of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. TESS KILLS FAMILY
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Rojelio Torres, one of the victims of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. ROJELIO TORRES FAMILY / Reuters
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Jailah Silguero, one of the victims of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.JAILAH SILGUERO / Reuters
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Jose Flores, one of the victims of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. FAMILY OF JOSÉ FLORES / Reuters
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Amerie Jo Garza, one of the victims of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. AMERIE JO GARZA’S FAMILY / Reuters
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Uziyah Garcia, one of the victims of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. FAMILY OF UZIYAH GARCIA / Reuters
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Alithia Ramírez, one of the victims of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. ALITHIA RAMIREZ FAMILY / Reuters
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Ellie Garcia, one of the victims of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Syria Arizmendi / The Associated Press
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Miranda Mathis, one of the victims of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. MIRANDA MATHIS FAMILY / Reuters
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Makenna Lee Elrod, one of the victims of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. MAKENNA FAMILY LEE ELROD / Reuters
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Maite Rodríguez, one of the victims of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. MAITE RODRIGUEZ FAMILY / Reuters
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Layla Salazar, one of the victims of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. LAYLA SALAZAR’S FAMILY / Reuters
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Annabelle Rodríguez, one of the victims of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. ANNABELLE RODRIGUEZ FAMILY / Reuters
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Jackie Cazares, one of the victims of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. JACKIE CAZARES FAMILY / Reuters
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Jayce Carmelo Luevanos, one of the victims of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. SILGUERO AND LUEVANOS FAMILY / Reuters
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Professor Irma Garcia, one of the victims of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. FAMILY OF IRMA GARCIA / Reuters
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Xavier López, one of the victims of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. FAMILY OF XAVIER LOPEZ / Reuters
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Mr Escalon said the shooter, Salvador Ramos, 18, crashed into a van on the road from the school at 11:28 a.m. Tuesday. Mr. Ramos had stolen the vehicle from his grandmother after shooting her in the face. Carrying a rifle and a bag full of ammunition, he shot at two people outside a funeral home as he was going to school.
After climbing through a fence in the school parking lot, he shot outside the building before entering through an unlocked door at 11:40 p.m. Mr. Escalon said there were no armed guards at the school, contrary to previous reports, and Mr. Ramos found no opposition as he entered.
The first calls to police, about a car accident and a man with a gun, arrived around 11:30 a.m., Mr. Step. It was about 14 minutes later, and four minutes after Mr. Ramos entered the school, that, according to Mr. Escalon’s account, the local police arrived at the scene.
When they entered, Mr. Ramos shot them and they fell back. An hour later, Mr. Escalon, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical team arrived and killed Mr. Branches.
He did not say whether Mr. Ramos shot no students or staff while police were out of school, waiting for support. He said that “most of the shots were at the beginning” and that after the arrival of the police, Mr Ramos was firing mainly to contain them.
“They were taking shots, negotiating and developing a team to come in and stop it,” Mr. Step on the school agents during this time.
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A video circulating on social media on Thursday showed a chaotic scene outside the school during the attack. Frantic parents confronted police officers and begged them to come in to rescue their children. Officers were also seen in the video preventing parents from entering the school themselves.
Monique Hernandez was in the crowd. His eight-year-old son, Joaquim Guzman, is in his 2nd year of primary school and was a close friend of Xavier López, one of the murdered children.
Ms. Hernandez confirmed Thursday that other parents were pressuring police to storm the school. But he defended the action of the agents, saying that they were setting perimeters and that not all the agents could enter the building.
“They were here all the time. I don’t care what people say,” he said. “You can’t tell me they didn’t do their job.”
From where she was standing, Mrs. Hernandez could see her son’s classroom. He was on the other side of the shooter’s school. He said he knew many of the dead personally.
“Everyone is related, everyone’s cousins, everyone’s family. You didn’t know these kids. These teachers. “Amazing women,” she said. “Amazing women, beautiful and selfless.”
Jennifer Gaitan, whose daughter Jazlynn Noriega also survived the shooting, asked why the school was not better insured.
“High schools have police officers on guard. That was the only school that really didn’t have any security,” he said at a memorial service at the Uvalde County Fairgrounds.
Jazlynn was sharpening a pencil in her 4th grade class when a bullet flew through the wall and hit the ceiling. Her teacher turned off the lights and carried the children behind the classroom tables until they could be evacuated.
“I think it would be common sense, since the first shooting happened at school, to make sure, when all the kids are there, that all the doors are closed,” Ms. Gaitan said. “That door was open and he went straight in.”
The White House announced Thursday that President Joe Biden will visit Uvalde on Sunday. Mr Biden has called for stricter gun control in the days following the shooting.
Meanwhile, Uvalde’s neighbors continue to mourn his loss. A white cross memorial with the names of the dead is now outside the school. Mr. Rodriguez, meanwhile, remembers his grandson as a “cheerful kid” who loved to play baseball. “He’s just going to work. A normal day at school.”
He took a picture of Jose from his wallet and lifted the picture of a small boy with a grin. “I would like to show it to the world,” he said.
He said he did not want to talk about police decisions on the day of the shooting and suggested that even the police themselves may not yet have an explanation for their actions.
“They don’t have time to think about it,” he said. “Only loss.”
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