UVALDE, Texas (AP) – Frustrated spectators urge police officers to charge at Texas Elementary School, where a gunshot wound killed 19 children and two teachers, witnesses said Wednesday, while investigators they were working to trace the massacre that lasted more than 40 minutes and ended when the 18-year-old shooter was killed by a Border Patrol team.
“Come in! Come in! “Nearby women called officers shortly after the attack began, said Juan Carranza, 24, who saw the scene from outside his home on the other side of the street. Robb Elementary School in the close-knit town of Uvalde Carranza said officers did not enter.
Javier Cazares, whose fourth-grader daughter Jacklyn Cazares died in the attack, said she ran to school when she learned of the shooting and arrived while police were still concentrated outside the building.
Disgusted that the police would not move, he raised the idea of entering the school with several other spectators.
“We are in a hurry because the police are not doing anything as they are supposed to do,” he said. “More could have been done.”
“They were not ready,” he added.
Minutes earlier, Carranza had seen Salvador Ramos crash his truck into a ditch outside the school, grab his AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle, and shoot at two people outside a nearby funeral home who fled unharmed.
Officials say he “stumbled” on a school district security officer outside the school, although there were conflicting reports from authorities about whether the men exchanged gunfire. After running inside, he fired at two UValde police officers who were outside the building, Texas Department of Homeland Security spokesman Travis Considine said. Police officers were injured.
After entering the school, Ramos charged against a classroom and started killing.
People are waiting to hear about loved ones outside the Willie SSGT civic center in Leon, where families gathered after nineteen children and two adults died in the shooting at Robb Elementary School on Tuesday, May 24, 2022 in Uvalde , TX. (Juan Figueroa / Staff Photographer)
“He barricaded himself by locking the door and started firing on children and teachers inside the classroom,” Lt. Christopher Olivarez of the Department of Homeland Security told CNN. “It just shows you the complete evil of the shooter.”
All the killers were in the same classroom, he said. A prayer vigil for the victims was held Wednesday evening at the Fairplex Arena in Uvalde County.
Department of Homeland Security Director Steve McCraw said it had been 40 minutes to an hour since Ramos opened fire on the school’s security officer and when the SWAT-like Border Patrol team he shot her. But a department spokesman later said during the day that they could not give a solid estimate of how long the gunman was at school or when he was killed.
Meanwhile, a police official familiar with the investigation said Border Patrol officers had trouble breaking down the classroom door and had to have a staff member open the room with a key. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to speak publicly about the ongoing investigation.
The women react after leaving the SSGT Willie Civic Center in Leon, where families gathered after fourteen children and a teacher were killed in the shooting at Robb Elementary School on Tuesday, May 24, 2022 in Uvalde, TX . (Juan Figueroa / Staff Photographer)
Carranza said officers should have entered the school earlier.
“There were more. There was only one,” he said.
Uvalde is a predominantly Latin city of about 16,000 people about 120 kilometers (75 miles) from the border with Mexico. Robb Elementary, which has about 600 second-, third-, and fourth-grade students, is a single-story brick structure in a predominantly residential neighborhood of modest homes.
Before attacking the school, Ramos shot and injured his grandmother in the house they shared, authorities said.
Neighbor Gilbert Gallegos, 82, who lives across the street and has known the family for decades, said he was shooting in his yard when he heard gunshots.
Ramos ran out the front door and crossed the small courtyard to the truck parked in front of the house. He seemed to be panicking, Gallegos said, and had trouble getting the truck out of the park.
Then he ran away: “He turned, I mean fast,” sprinkling gravel into the air.
Related: After a long day of waiting, the parents of Uvalde’s student find out that he died in a tragedy
Her grandmother came out covered in blood: “She says, ‘Berto, that’s what she did. He shot me. ” She was hospitalized.
Gallegos, whose wife called 911, said he had not heard any discussion before or after the shootings, and that he knew of no history of harassment or abuse by Ramos, whom he rarely saw.
Investigators also failed to shed light on the cause of Ramos’ attack, which also left at least 17 injured. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Ramos, a small town resident about 135 miles west of San Antonio, had no known criminal or mental health record.
“We don’t see any motive or catalyst right now,” McCraw of the Department of Homeland Security said.
Ramos had legally bought the rifle and a second one like this last week, just after his birthday, authorities said.
About half an hour before the mass shooting, Ramos sent the first of three messages online warning of the attack, Abbott said.
Ramos wrote that he was going to shoot his grandmother, after he had shot the woman. On the last note, sent about 15 minutes before arriving at Robb Elementary, he said he was going to shoot an elementary school, according to Abbott. Investigators said Ramos did not specify which school.
Ramos sent private text messages one by one via Facebook and they were “discovered after the terrible tragedy,” company spokesman Andy Stone said. He said Facebook is cooperating with researchers.
More than 1,000 people at the Ugalde County Fairplex mourn the loss of students and teachers Wednesday night.
Weeping families and residents filled the rodeo arena, dressed in burgundy, the color of Robb Elementary School.
“These are the saddest things I’ve ever experienced,” said Carmen Cruz, who has lived in Ubalde for 17 years. “It’s so sad that politicians come to town just for moments like this.”
Sitting in a crowded area, Abbott and Senator Ted Cruz listened as people prayed and cried out for loss.
Cruz hugged Uvalde County Sheriff Rubén Nolasco while a violinist played Amazing Grace.
“I didn’t lose anyone, but this is a wound we will never forget,” said Antonio Pasqueira, 65, a Uvalde resident who works in a car repair shop.
Abbott said some of the students at Robb Elementary School were receiving perfect attendance awards when the shooting began.
Among the dead were Eliahna Garcia, an outgoing 10-year-old girl who loved to sing, dance, and play basketball; a roommate, Xavier Javier López, who was looking forward to a summer of swimming; and a teacher, Eva Mireles, with 17 years of experience whose husband is an officer in the school district’s police department.
The daughter of a local sheriff’s deputy was also among the victims, according to Abbott.
Related: What do we know about the Uvalde school shooting
“You can only tell by their angelic smiles that they were loved,” said Uvalde Superintendent of Schools Hal Harrell, struggling with tears as he remembered the murdered children and teachers.
Uvalde’s tragedy was the latest in a seemingly endless wave of mass shootings in the United States in recent years. Just 10 days earlier, 10 black people were shot dead in a racist attack at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York.
The bombing was the deadliest school shooting in the United States since a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012.
Amid calls for stricter gun restrictions, the Republican governor has repeatedly spoken out about the mental health struggles among Texas youth and argued that the toughest gun laws in Chicago, New York and California are ineffective.
Democrat Beto O’Rourke, who is running against Abbott as governor, interrupted Wednesday’s press conference, calling the tragedy “predictable.” Pointing to Abbott, he said, “That’s up to you until you decide to do something different. This will keep happening.” O’Rourke was escorted outside while some in the room called to him. Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin called O’Rourke a “sick son of a bitch.”
Related: Uvalde School Shootout Quickly Renews Texas Arms Law Debate
Texas has some of the most pro-gun laws in the nation and has been the site of some of the deadliest shootings in the United States in five years.
“I don’t know how people can sell this kind of weapon to an 18-year-old boy,” said Syria’s Arizmendi, the victim’s aunt Eliahna Garcia, angry in tears. “What will he use it for but this purpose?”
President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that “the second amendment is not absolute,” as he called for new arms restrictions following the massacre.
But the prospects for reform of national weapons regulations seemed weak. Repeated attempts over the years to expand background checks and enact other brakes have met with Republican opposition in Congress.
The shooting came days before the annual National Rifle Association convention in Houston began, with the intervention of the governor of Texas and the two Republican senators from the United States.
Dillon Silva, whose nephew was in the classroom, said students were watching the Disney movie “Moana” when they heard several loud bangs and a bullet shattered a window. Moments later, his teacher saw the assailant pass in front of the door.
“Oh my God, he has a gun!” the teacher called twice, according to Silva. “The teacher didn’t even have time to close the door,” he said.
Three children and an adult remained in a hospital in San Antonio, where two of them, a …