Multiple police officers armed with rifles and at least one ballistic shield stood upright and waited in a school hallway for nearly an hour as a gunman carried out a massacre of 19 elementary students and two teachers on May 24, according to the Monday news marking the latest. shameful revelation about the failure of law enforcement to thwart the attack.
Officers with more firepower and tactical equipment were there 19 minutes after the gunman arrived on campus, earlier than previously known, according to documents reviewed by Austin American-Statesman and KVUE-TV.
Point-of-sale reports, which did not indicate the source of the documents, however, intensified anxiety and questions about why police did not act earlier to stop the May 24 massacre in the classroom. Robb Elementary School.
The information will be presented Tuesday at a Texas Senate public hearing in Austin. Investigators say the latest information indicates that officers had more than enough firepower and protection to kill the gunman long before they finally did so, media reported.
Jessie Rodriguez, the father of Robb Elementary School shooting victim Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez, 10, has a photo of her as she protests the removal of Uvalde schools police chief Pete Arredondo from next to the memorial for the victims of the shooting, in Uvalde Town. Square June 11, 2022. STRINGER / REUTERS
Separately, CNN, citing a police source close to the investigation, reported that eleven officers, including Uvalde School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, were inside Robb Elementary School within three minutes of gunman entered on May 24th.
The chronology reported by the American-Statesman and KVUE in the documents included images of the interior of the school showing the 18-year-old gunman accidentally entering through a back door at 11:33 a.m., walking towards in a classroom and firing immediately before barricading himself. The video showed 11 officers entering the school three minutes later, media reported.
Arredondo called the UValde police department landline and reported that his suspect had fired “a lot” with an AR-15-style rifle and beat the school officers, who said they were only armed with pistols, the media reported.
Four minutes later, at 11:44 a.m., the video from the body camera recorded the sound of more shots. At 11:52, the first ballistic shield arrived while officers were impatient to act. Arredondo struggled to find a key to the classroom door even though no one is believed to have tried to open the door, the outlets reported.
Another officer with a ballistic shield arrived at 12:03 p.m., and another arrived with a shield two minutes later. About 30 minutes before officers finally broke down the classroom door at 12:50 p.m., Arredondo is heard wondering aloud if the gunman could be shot through a window. Only at 12:46 p.m., Arredondo told tactical team members to break down the door when they were ready, media reported.
Last week, the San Antonio Express-News reported that video surveillance footage of the school did not show officers trying to open the door leading to the classrooms where the massacre was taking place. And The New York Times reported that two UValde City police officers told a sheriff’s deputy that they missed a fleeting opportunity to shoot the gunman while he was still out of school for fear of hitting children. .
Delays in law enforcement response have been the focus of federal, state and local investigation into the massacre and its aftermath. Questions about the response of law enforcement began days after the massacre. Colonel Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said on May 27 that Arredondo made the “wrong decision” when he decided not to assault the classroom for more than 70 minutes, even though fourth-graders trapped inside two classrooms were desperately. calling 911 for help.
Arredondo later said he was not considered responsible and assumed that someone else had taken control of the law enforcement response. Arredondo has denied repeated requests for comment to The Associated Press.
KHOU-TV, a subsidiary of CBS Houston, reports that Uvalde’s school board heard calls for Arredondo to be fired at an emotional meeting Monday night.
“We missed Pete Arredondo,” said Brett Cross, the victim’s uncle and guardian, Uziyah Garcia. “It failed our children, teachers, parents and the city, and by keeping it on your staff, you continue to fail us.”
The station says about 200 people attended, including families of those who lost their lives.
Speakers insisted that anyone who fails to perform their duties must be held accountable.
School shooting in Uvalde, Texas
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