There was a barrage of gunfire shortly after Ramos entered the classroom where officers killed him, but those shots were “sporadic” for much of the 48 minutes when officers waited in the hallway, McCraw said. He said investigators do not know if or how many children died during that time.
During the attack, teachers and children repeatedly called 911 for help, including a girl who begged, “Please send the police now,” McCraw said.
Questions have been raised about how long it took officers to get into the school to confront the gunman. They came when the National Rifle Association held its convention in Houston, as the issue of gun safety shocked the American and global public.
A boy looks at a memorial site for the victims killed in this week’s shooting at Robb Elementary School. Credit: AP Photo / Dario Lopez-Mills
The event, where former U.S. President Donald Trump spoke, drew fierce criticism and hundreds of protesters.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott was scheduled to speak at the event, but withdrew at the last minute and chose to stay in Uvalde.
Ramos’s fury
It was 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, Texas time, when Ramos’s Ford truck crashed into a ditch behind Texas High School and the driver jumped with an AR-15-style rifle.
Twelve minutes later, authorities say, Ramos entered the school and found his way to the fourth-grade classroom where he killed the 21 victims.
But it was not until 12.58pm that law enforcement radio talk said Ramos had been killed and the siege was over.
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What happened in those 90 minutes, in a working-class neighborhood near the outskirts of the city of Uvalde, has fueled the growing anger of the public and the scrutiny of the response of law enforcement to the Tuesday’s commotion.
“They say they rushed in,” said Javier Cazares, whose fourth-grader daughter Jacklyn Cazares died in the attack, and who ran to the school while the massacre unfolded. “We didn’t see it.”
Friday’s briefing only came after authorities spent three days providing often contradictory and incomplete information.
According to the new timeline provided by McCraw, after crashing his truck, Ramos shot at two people coming out of a nearby funeral home, officials said.
Law enforcement personnel are out of Robb Elementary School after the shooting. Credit: AP Photo / Dario Lopez-Mills
Contrary to previous statements by officials, a school district police officer was not inside the school when Ramos arrived. When the officer responded, unknowingly, he passed Ramos, who was crouched behind a car parked outside and fired at the building, McCraw said.
At 11:33 p.m., Ramos entered the school through a back door that had opened and fired more than 100 meats at a couple of classrooms, McCraw said.
Department of Homeland Security spokesman Travis Considine said investigators have not yet determined why the door was opened.
Two minutes later, three local police officers arrived and entered the building through the same door, followed shortly after by four others, McCraw said. In 15 minutes, as many as 19 agents from different agencies had gathered in the hallway, catching sporadic fire from Ramos, which was locked in a classroom.
Ramos was still inside at 12:10 a.m. when the first deputies from the U.S. Marshals Service arrived. They had run to the school from nearly 113 kilometers away in the border town of Del Rio, the agency said in a tweet.
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But the police commander inside the building decided the group would have to wait to confront the gunman, believing the scene was no longer an active attack, McCraw said.
The crisis ended after a group of Tactical Border Patrol officers entered the school at 12:45 p.m., Texas Department of Homeland Security spokesman Travis Considine said. They took part in a shootout with the gunman, who was locked up in the fourth grade classroom. Moments before 1 p.m., he was dead.
The timeline raises more questions
Ken Trump, president of the National School Safety and Security Services consultancy, said the length of the calendar raised questions.
“Based on best practices, it’s very difficult to understand why there was some kind of delay, especially when you go into reports of 40 minutes or more coming in to neutralize that shooter,” he said.
The motive for the massacre was further investigated, and authorities said Ramos had no known criminal or mental health record.
During the siege, frustrated spectators urged police officers to charge at the school, according to witnesses.
“Come in! Get in! “The women called the officers shortly after the attack began, said Juan Carranza, 24, who saw the scene from outside a house across the street.
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Carranza said officers should have entered the school earlier: “There were more. There was only one.”
The shooter’s parents respond
The gunman’s father, also known as Salvador Ramos, 42, expressed remorse for his son’s actions in an interview with The Daily Beast.
“I just want people to know I’m sorry, man, for what my son did,” the great Ramos said. “I should have killed myself, you know, instead of doing something like that to someone.”
Ramos ‘mother told Televisa, a CNN affiliate, that she had no explanation for Ramos’ attack.
“I don’t know what he was thinking,” Adriana Martinez said. “I had his reasons for doing what he did and please don’t judge him. I just want the innocent children who died to forgive me.”
AP, Reuters
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