Frustrated spectators urged police officers to charge at Texas Elementary School, where a gunman attack killed 19 children and two teachers, witnesses said Wednesday as investigators worked to trace the massacre that took place. lasted more than 40 minutes and ended when the 18-year-old shooter finished. he 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.
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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.
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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.
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After entering the school, Ramos charged against a classroom and started killing.
“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.
Researchers are looking for evidence outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 25th. Photo by AP / Jae C. Hong
Department of Homeland Security director Steve McCraw told reporters it took 40 minutes to an hour from Ramos opening fire on the school’s security officer until the tactical equipment fired at him. although a department spokesman later said they could not give a solid estimate of how long the gunman was at school or when he was killed.
“The bottom line is that there was law enforcement,” McCraw said. “They committed immediately. They contained (Ramos) in the classroom.”
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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.
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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.
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1:51 Tough conversations about school shooting Tough conversations about school shooting
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.
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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.
Her grandmother came out covered in blood: “She says, ‘Berto, that’s what she did. He shot me. ” She was hospitalized.
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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 legally bought the rifle and a second one like this last week, just after his birthday, authorities said.
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1:37 Parents and students react to a mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Parents and students react to a mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas
About half an hour before the mass shooting, Ramos sent the first of three messages online warning of his plans, 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, company spokesman Andy Stone said. It was not clear who received the messages.
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The pain engulfed Uvalde as the details emerged.
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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, whose husband is an officer in the school district’s police department.
“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.
The 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.
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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, “This is 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.”
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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 …