“The commander at the scene at the time believed he had gone from an active shooter to a barricaded subject,” said Colonel Steven McCraw of the Texas Department of Homeland Security (DPS).
“From the benefit of the retrospective where I’m sitting now, of course, it wasn’t the right decision. It was the wrong decision. There’s no excuse for that,” he said.
Texas Department of Homeland Security Director Steven McCraw speaks at a press conference held outside Robb Elementary School on Friday, May 27, 2022 in Uvalde, Texas. Nearly 20 officers were left in a hallway outside the classrooms during this week’s attack on a Texas elementary school for more than 45 minutes before officers used a master key to open a door and confront a gunman, authorities said Friday. (Photo by AP / Wong Maye-E)
While officers were waiting outside the classrooms adjoining Robb Elementary in Uvalde, children inside the room repeatedly called 911 and called for help, he said.
“The belief was that no one was living there anymore and that the subject is now trying to keep law enforcement at bay or lure them in,” he said.
The damning revelation explains the long wait between the time officers first arrived at the school at 11:44 a.m. and when a tactical team finally entered the room and killed the gunman at 12:50 p.m. . The tactical team was able to enter with the keys of a janitor, McCraw said.
Officials initially praised the law enforcement response and noted that the carnage could have been worse. But the revelations of McCraw and DPS regional chief Victor Escalon a day earlier revealed major flaws in the contradictory response and information.
Friends of Miranda Mathis’ family mourn her loss at a cross bearing her name in Uvalde, Texas, United States, on Thursday, May 26, 2022. Nineteen children and two teachers were killed when a gunman shot. 18 years opened its doors. fire in a classroom at Robb Elementary School Tuesday in Uvalde, Texas. (Matthew Busch / CNN)
The emergency protocol established since the 1999 Columbine school shooting is to end the threat as soon as possible so that fatalities occur in seconds or minutes.
“The levels of failure are incredible, beyond belief,” said Anthony Barksdale, the former Baltimore acting police commissioner.
The shooting in Uvalde is the deadliest school shooting since the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre and at least the 30th shooting at a K-12 school in 2022. The attack came less than two weeks after a racist shooting in Buffalo, New York, and has left Americans in mourning once again and many renewing calls for gun law reform.
The gunman entered the school unobstructed, according to officials
Investigators are still working out a butcher’s timeline, Escalon, DPS’s South Texas regional director, said during a news conference. “With all the different agencies involved, we’re working on all the angles available,” Escalon said. “We will not stop until we have all the answers we can.”
After shooting his grandmother at his home, Ramos drove to Robb Elementary, where he crashed his truck into a nearby ditch, Sergeant DPS. said Erick Estrada. It is unclear why it crashed.
Law enforcement and UValde students (Marco Bello / Reuters)
The shooter then fired at two witnesses across the street before climbing a fence, advancing toward the school and firing at the building, according to Escalon.
There were no agents outside the school to stop Ramos, who “at first entered unhindered,” Escalon said Thursday. Earlier information about a school resource officer involving the gunman “was not accurate,” he said.
Ramos entered the building through a seemingly open door at 11:40 a.m., Escalon said. That door is usually locked, “unless you go home with the school bus,” former principal Ross McGlothlin told CNN.
Inside the school, the shooter barricaded himself inside two adjacent classrooms and fired more than 25 times, Escalon said.
A vehicle goes through an electronic billboard on Thursday, May 26, 2022 in Richland, Mississippi, expressing its support for residents of Uvalde, Texas, following the deadly shooting at the school on Tuesday. (Photo AP / Rogelio V. Solis)
At 11:44 a.m. law enforcement arrived and entered the school.
What law enforcement did inside and outside the school
What happened in the hour between his arrival and the death of the gunman remains murky.
At least seven officers rushed to Robb Elementary within four minutes of the shooter’s arrival, DPS spokesman Chris Olivarez told CNN. Three officers entered the same door that the shooter used and four used a different entrance, Olivarez told CNN.
When they confronted the shooter, he fired at them and took cover. Two officers who responded were shot; his injuries were not life-threatening, said Uvalde police chief Daniel Rodriguez.
“It’s important for our community to know that our agents responded in a matter of minutes,” along with school resource officers, he said.
Officers then called for more tactical equipment and resources, such as body armor, as they worked to evacuate teachers and students, Escalon said. About an hour later, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical team entered and killed Ramos, he said.
Two Texas soldiers light a candle at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. (AP)
When asked for more details at a press conference about what exactly the responding agents were doing during the one-hour period, Escalon declined to provide further information.
Outside the school, chaos and confusion reigned when exhausted parents showed up and begged law enforcement to come in and kill the gunman. A father even asked officers to give him his equipment, he said.
“I myself told one of the officers that if they didn’t want to go in, they would lend me his pistol and a vest and I would go in and handle it myself. And they told me no,” Victor said. The moon. CNN. Her son survived.
Instead, officers kept the parents behind a yellow police tape, refusing to let them in as they cried and screams resounded around them, several videos show. About an hour later, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical team stormed into the classroom and fatally shot the gunman, Escalon said.
The San Antonio Fire Department team is stationed outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. (AP)
Members of the U.S. Marshals Service can be seen in a video of parents who begged to enter the school. The U.S. marshals said in a statement that they were called to the school at 11:30 a.m. and arrived about 40 minutes later from Del Rio, about 113 km away.
The first deputy U.S. Marshal to arrive entered the school to assist the Border Patrol tactical team that was already involved with the shooter. Deputies also provided assistance to the victims. Other lawmakers were asked to secure the perimeter around the school, but never arrested or handcuffed anyone, the agency said.
“Our deputy marshals maintained order and peace amid the grief-stricken community that was gathering around the school,” the agency said.
The grieving community is aware of the consequences
Days after the massacre, Uvalde’s neighbors are still full of grief. The bodies of the last victims were returned to their families on Thursday night. Six people were still hospitalized on Thursday, including the shooter’s grandmother, who was shot in the face.
And the devastating news continued to pour on Thursday as word spread that the husband of a murdered teacher had died of a heart attack caused, according to his family, by a broken heart.
People march on a local street at the end of a vigil to show solidarity with the families of Uvalde, Texas, and demand an end to armed violence on Thursday, May 26, 2022 in Newtown, Connecticut. (Photo AP / Eduardo Muñoz Alvarez)
Joe Garcia’s death was confirmed by the Archdiocese of San Antonio. Irma Garcia was a fourth-grade teacher and had been married to Joe for more than 25 years, according to a GoFundMe campaign posted by her cousin.
For survivors, the trauma is sinking. Edward Timothy Silva, a high school student who was hiding behind desks in the dark at school when he heard loud noises in the distance, now wonders, “He has to go to school next year.” , her mother. said Amberlynn Diaz.
“And I just don’t want him to be afraid of school,” he said. “I want him to keep learning and not be afraid to go back to school. I want him to have a normal life again.”