Sources: Video footage, law enforcement officials and a former student familiar with school design. Graphic: The New York Times. Licensed by Axios
At least eight 911 calls were made from classrooms at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas between 12:03 p.m., half an hour after the 18-year-old gunman entered the building on Tuesday. , and around 12:50 p.m., when the Border Patrol. agents and police finally came in and shot him dead.
Why It’s Important: Local and state law enforcement officials are facing intense criticism for taking so long for officers to confront and stop Uvalde’s shooter in two classrooms. connected.
What we know:
- The on-site commander, head of the Uvalde school district police department, believed the gunman was barricaded inside classrooms and that the children were no longer at immediate risk.
- “It was a wrong decision, period,” Steven McCraw, head of the Texas Department of Homeland Security, told a news conference Friday.
- Standard law enforcement protocols require police to deal with an active school shooter without delay, rather than waiting for a backup or more firepower. McCraw, whose voice was drowned out by emotion at times, said, “We are here to denounce the facts, not to defend what was done,” Reuters said.
- Most of the children caught with the gunman were 9 or 10 years old.
- In a one-minute call at 12:03 p.m., a girl whispered that she was in room 112, more than 45 minutes before a Border Patrol tactical team used a janitor’s key to open classroom doors closed.
- The videos showed parents distressed outside the school, urging police to storm the building during the attack, and some had to be detained by police.
What we don’t know:
- How many children could have been saved, as medical experts point out that critically injured victims must be evacuated to a trauma center in 60 minutes, a period of time that emergency doctors call the “golden hour.” according to Reuters.
- Why a more experienced commander of a larger agency didn’t take over. Police are parked outside the home of Uvalde School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who is said to have made the fateful decision to wait, AP reports.
- Why officials weren’t cleaned up before.
What happens next: the delay in facing the shooter could lead to discipline, complaints and even criminal charges against the police, according to AP.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says he was “tricked” into Uvalde’s timeline