On Friday, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, Steven McCraw, presented the most detailed breakdown the public has received so far about the horror that unfolded at Robb Elementary School on May 24 and attempted to offer some answers about how the authorities responded.
In previous months
In September 2021, the shooter asked his sister to help him buy a gun and she “flatly refused,” McCraw said.
The shooter was in a group chat on Instagram and on Feb. 28 there was a discussion about the suspect as a “school shooter,” McCraw said.
On March 1, the shooter had a chat on Instagram with several others in which he talked about buying a gun, McCraw said. Two days later, there was another group chat in which someone said, “word on the street” was that the suspect was buying a gun. The shooter replied, “I just bought something.”
On March 14, the shooter wrote in an Instagram post, “10 more days.” Another user replied, “Are you going to shoot a school or something?” The shooter replied, “No, and stop asking stupid questions and you’ll see,” McCraw said.
On May 17 and 20, the shooter legally bought two AR platform rifles from a local federal firearms holder, said Texas State Sen. John Whitmire, who received information from the forces. of order.
The shooter also bought 375 rounds of ammunition on May 18, Whitmire said, citing law enforcement.
State Senator Roland Gutierrez said the purchases were made for the suspect’s 18th birthday.
He shot his grandmother and left the house
Before going to school and committing a massacre, the shooter sent a series of creepy text messages to a girl he met online, according to screenshots reviewed by CNN and an interview with the girl.
The teenager, who lives in Germany, said he started chatting with the shooter on a social media app earlier this month. The gunman told him he received a package of ammunition on Monday, he said.
On Tuesday morning, Ramos called her and told her he loved her, she said.
She complained that her grandmother was talking on the phone with AT&T about “my phone.”
“It’s annoying,” he wrote.
Six minutes later, at 11:21 a.m., he sent a text message: “I just shot my grandmother in the head.”
A few seconds later, he said, “I’m going to shoot at an elementary school (right now).”
The suspect started shooting outside the school
Tuesday, May 24, 11:27 a.m .: The video shows an outside door of Robb Elementary School, which is suspected to be where the shooter entered, was opened by a teacher, McCraw said during a lecture press release Friday.
11:28 a.m .: The shooter’s vehicle crashes into a ditch near the school. A teacher enters a room to pick up a phone and returns to the exit door, which remains open, McCraw said. The suspect jumped on the side of the passenger side of the truck with a rifle and a bag, which officials later discovered was ammunition, DPS Director Victor Escalon told a news conference Thursday.
Meanwhile, two witnesses, who were at a funeral home in front of the school, hear the shock and go to see what happened. The suspect starts firing at them, McCraw said. They both started running away.
11:30 a.m .: A teacher emerges in panic again and “apparently” called 911, McCraw said. In a separate statement, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said it received a call for assistance at 11:30 a.m. from an officer in the Uvalde police department.
11:31 a.m.: The suspect arrives in the last row of vehicles in the school parking lot and starts firing at the school, McCraw said. Patrol vehicles begin to arrive at the funeral home.
There was no school resources officer facing the suspect outside of school, as officials had previously described, McCraw said. A school resources officer was not at the scene, but he heard a 911 call about a man with a gun, drove into the area and drove to the back of the school, to a person he thought was the suspicious but he was a teacher, McCraw said.
“In doing so, (the school’s resource officer) drove right next to the suspect, who was crouched behind a vehicle, where he started firing at the school,” McCraw said. The suspect fired several shots, he added.
The first officers entered the school more than 1 hour before the shooter was killed
11:33 a.m .: The shooter enters the school and starts firing in a classroom, which is connected to a second class. He fired “at least” 100 rounds, McCraw said.
11:35 a.m .: Three officers from the Uvalde Police Department enter through the same door as the suspect. Three other Uvalde police officers and a county sheriff are following, McCraw said, for a total of seven officers at the scene.
The three initial officers went straight to the classroom door, which was closed, and two received gunshot wounds from the shooter, McCraw said.
11:37 a.m .: 16 more cartridges are made in the next few minutes.
11:42 am: A source close to a teacher receives a text saying that there was an active shooter on campus. CNN watched the text string and confirmed the timestamps.
11:43 am: Robb Elementary announces on Facebook that it is in a state of blockade “due to gunfire in the area,” adding that “students and staff are safe in the building.”
At about 11:44 a.m.: Officers are requesting additional resources, equipment, body armor, negotiators and the evacuation of students and faculty, Escalon said Thursday.
11:51 am: More agents arrive at the scene, McCraw said.
12:03 p.m .: Officers continue to arrive in the school hallway. “There are up to 19 agents in this aisle at the moment,” McCraw said.
12:03 pm: A girl from one of the adjoining classrooms calls 911, identifies herself and whispers the classroom where she is. The call lasted one minute and 23 seconds. She calls back a few minutes later and says there are a lot of dead people.
12:10 p.m .: The first group of U.S. deputy commissioners arrives on the scene to help “federal, state and local security forces that are already on the scene,” the commissioner’s service said in a statement.
12:13 pm: The girl calls 911 again, McCraw said.
12:15: Members of the BORTAC Border Patrol tactical unit arrive on the scene, McCraw said.
(When Border Patrol agents began arriving, the officer in charge of the situation had already determined that it was a barricaded subject situation, said a source familiar with the situation. The team waited, without breaking He hid in the classroom where the shooter was. He hid until almost 40 minutes later. “, do not relate to the gunman before.) 12:17 pm: Robb Elementary announces on Facebook that there is an active shooter at the school and that the authorities are at the scene.
12:16 p.m .: The girl calls 911 again and tells the dispatchers that there are eight to nine living students, McCraw said.
12:19 pm: Another person calls 911 from one of the two classrooms and hangs up when another student tells him, McCraw said.
12:21: The suspect shoots again. He was believed to be at the door, McCraw said.
Law enforcement is moving down the aisle.
12:21 pm: Three shots are heard from another 911 call.
12:36 pm: The initial student who called 911 calls again, is told to be very quiet and tells the dispatchers that he “shot at the door,” McCraw said. The call lasted 21 seconds.
12:43 pm: The young woman asks the dispatchers to “please send the police now.”
12:47 pm: Student calls police again, McCraw said. A minute earlier, he had said he could hear the police next door.
12:50 pm: Law enforcement breaks the locked door of the classroom using the keys of a janitor, McCraw said. They shoot and kill the suspect.
12:51 pm: Through the 911 call from the girl, there are loud noises and you can hear the agents moving the children in the room, McCraw said. The child leaves and the call is cut off.
The suspect bought and had a total of 1,657 rounds of ammunition, McCraw said, at least 315 of which were inside the school.
And 142 of these were spent cartridges.
CNN’s Ashley Killough and Whitney Wild contributed to this report.