That’s a change from last week, when the department’s director, Colonel Steven McCraw, said the back door had been opened by a professor. On Tuesday, her spokeswoman Travis Considine told the Associated Press that the teacher closed the door when she realized there was a shooter on campus, but the door did not close. The department’s press secretary confirmed to CNN on Tuesday that the AP report was correct. Tuesday’s clarification on the door represents just one of the changes in the authorities’ explanation of the chronology of the massacre. They face growing questions about why 80 minutes passed from the time officers were first called until a tactical team entered the closed classrooms and killed the gunman.
Meanwhile, family and friends have begun to bury their loved ones and the community continues to cope. In the sun-drenched city square, a fountain in the park is the centerpiece of a growing memorial in honor of the lost.
Hundreds of bouquets of flowers surround the fountain, stacked next to toys, stuffed animals, candles and letters in memory of the 21 murders. Framed posters show smiling faces, leaning against walls covered with drawn hearts and names written in chalk. On a path leading to the square, visitors slowly pass a row of crosses, stopping to pray or reflect on the devastating tragedy. Each cross, a few meters high and covered with flowers, balloons and messages of remembrance, bears the name of someone killed. Ryan Ramirez, Alithia Ramirez’s father, said she waited almost 12 hours before learning that she had been murdered. He described his 10-year-old daughter as “very kind and friendly”.
“She was there for anyone who needed anything. And that was something we all loved about her,” she told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Tuesday.
Alithia “liked to draw,” her father said, and when she met with President Joe Biden during her visit to Uvalde on Sunday, Biden told her she would exhibit one of Alithia’s drawings at the White House.
She “always had a pencil in her hand, she just went to town,” Ramirez said.
As the community weeps, more details are emerging about how those inside responded to the terror. Robb Elementary educator Nicole Ogburn said she had just lit a movie for her students when she saw someone carrying a gun outside her classroom window. like, I was looking out the window and I saw this guy with a gun approaching. And I just told my class, that I could land, that I could land, that I could get to the corner, “Ogburn told CNN KABB / WOAI affiliates.
“I just heard gunshots and kept praying, ‘My God, please don’t let him into my room, please don’t let him into this room,’ and for some reason, he didn’t “.
Several phone calls were made to 911 from classrooms where the gunman unleashed his deadly attack, with children asking for police intervention, a chronology provided by the state Department of Public Safety revealed.
Three people injured by the gunman were hospitalized on Tuesday at San Antonio University Hospital. The gunman’s 66-year-old grandmother, who was shot in the face before the school attack, is in good condition; a 9-year-old girl is in good condition; and a 10-year-old girl is in serious condition, the hospital said.
The police chief was sworn in as a city councilor
Meanwhile, the head of police in the school district of Uvalde, who was the commander of the incident during the shooting, was sworn in as a member of the city council on Tuesday after being elected to office last month. Pedro “Pete” Arredondo has been criticized for his decision to have agents. posted in the hallway outside the classrooms where the shooting took place, waiting more than an hour to intervene before a Border Patrol tactical team entered the room and killed the gunman.
McCraw said the person who made the decision not to violate the classroom at Uvalde Elementary School was the school district police chief, calling it a “wrong decision” not to compromise the gunman. before.
Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin said on Tuesday that no swearing-in ceremony was held, “out of respect for the families who have buried their children today and who plan to bury their children in the coming days.” The mayor had said on Monday that the extraordinary council meeting “will not take place as planned”, adding that “our focus on Tuesday is on our families who lost loved ones”. at the shooting at the request of the mayor.
There are more resources coming in, the state says
With the focus on law enforcement response, Texas officials are also working to address current needs on the ground, they said.
To speed up the allocation of state and local resources, Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday declared a state of disaster for Uvalde, according to a press release from the governor’s office.
“The disaster declaration will speed up all available state and local resources to help the Uvalde community, as well as suspend regulations that would prevent, hinder or delay the actions needed to deal with the consequences of the tragic shooting,” the statement said. .
“The Uvalde community has been devastated by last week’s senseless act of violence at Robb Elementary School and should have no difficulty receiving the support needed to heal,” Abbott said.
Other aid has come for out-of-town volunteer service events.
Patrick Johnson, 58, was so affected by the pain after learning of the seven-hour drive from Harleton, Texas to Uvalde, filling his trunk with a Walmart children’s toy to faint. in the town square, he told CNN.
For three days, the children were invited to choose any toy they liked from a table full of stuffed animals, miniature cars, and soccer balls.
“When you lose something, especially when you were a kid, you need something else to hold on to,” Johnson said. “It brings joy to children, so it brings me joy.”
CNN’s Andy Rose, Omar Jimenez, Christina Maxouris, Alaa Elassar, Eric Levenson, Raja Razek, Joe Sutton, Jeremy Grisham, and Virginia Langmaid contributed to this report.