Children flee to safety after fleeing a window during a mass shooting in Uwalde, Texas, on May 24. Pete Luna / Uvalde Leader-News / Reuters
Police stayed in front of locked classrooms for more than an hour at Rob Elementary School, while dozens of students were caught inside with a school shooter, even as some of these children whispered to 911 asking for help.
For the first time, a minute-by-minute breakdown of police response was provided at a news conference Friday outside a school in Uwalde, Texas, where 19 children and two teachers were killed Tuesday in the third deadliest school shooting in American history.
Earlier this week, videos circulated online showed frantic parents outside the school during the shooting, asking police to enter and in some cases asking to be allowed to enter on their own.
Texas Public Safety Director Stephen McCrow told a news conference that the commanding officer at the scene of the shooting – whom he identified as the head of the Uwalde Consolidated School District Police Department, Pete Aradondo – had instructed officers to respond initially. I’m applying.
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“The commander of the scene at the time thought he was an active shooter [situation] at a barricaded site – that there is time and no more children at risk, “Colonel McCrow told reporters.
“In retrospect … of course it wasn’t the right decision,” he said. “It was the wrong decision, period. There is no excuse for that. “
The shooting began Tuesday morning when 18-year-old Salvador Ramos shot his grandmother in the face and took off in her pickup truck, carrying a rifle and a bag of ammunition. He crashed into a truck near the school and shot two people as they approached the wreckage.
Although there were 911 calls about the crash and a man with a gun, he had already reached the school parking lot by the time police responded and was “stuck” behind a car, Colonel McCrow said. A police cruiser passed right by him.
Colonel McCrow said the gunman reached the site at 11:31 a.m. and began firing on the building outside.
He entered the school at 11:33 a.m. through a door that had been left open by a teacher who rushed inside to pick up something. He turned down the hall and almost immediately fired two adjacent classrooms, 111 and 112. Colonel McCro said audio evidence showed he fired more than 100 rounds.
Local police stormed the school through the same door just minutes later at 11:35 a.m. They were immediately shot at, Colonel McCrow said, and two were shot. They withdrew and called for reinforcements. The shooting continued.
Media representatives take pictures on a map of the school. Wong Maye-E / Associated Press
Support began arriving at 11:51 a.m., and by 12:03 p.m., there were as many as 19 officers lined up in the school hallway outside the classrooms that the shooter had locked. But they did not have the tactical equipment the commander thought they needed to move. Meanwhile, Col. McCrow said, a student whispered 911 from Room 112. She called back a few minutes later and said several of her classmates were dead.
At 12:15 a Border Patrol team arrived on the scene, equipped with shields. However, the police did not show up. At 12:16 the student called 911 again and said there were eight or nine students in the room. Several more 911 calls were received, including from one student, although there were more shots. At 12:47 p.m., the first student was still begging the 911 dispatcher to send police, adding that she could hear the officers next door.
It was 12:50 pm when police finally entered the classrooms, using keys they had received from a school janitor, and killed the shooter. Asked if there were any children shot while police were waiting for reinforcements, Colonel McCrow said he could not say. He said the two students who called 911 survived.
Colonel McCrow did not answer questions about whether the information about the call to 911 was passed on to the commander of the scene. His voice cracked as he admitted police mistakes.
“There were a lot of officers to do what needed to be done,” he said.
Jennifer Gaitan, who lives three blocks from the school and has a daughter who attends fourth grade there, was one of the first parents to arrive that day after seeing police gather in the building. The parents begged the staff to intervene.
A policeman, she said, pushed her back with his assault rifle and then twisted her arm behind her back. The arm he twisted was broken by a car accident, she said. He released her when her husband pushed him away.
Victims of mass shootings at Rob Elementary School, top left: Teacher Eva Mireles, Eliahana Cruz Torres, Makena Lee Elrod, Jose Flores, Miranda Matisse, Maite Rodriguez, Teacher Irma Garcia, Second row: Nevava Bravo, Alicia Ramilaz Garcia, Ameri Joe Garza, Anabel Rodriguez, Jackie Casares, Bottom line: Jace Carmelo Luevanos, Jaila Silgero, Rogelio Torres, Xavier Lopez, Tess Mata, Alexandria Ania Rubio and Eli Garcia. Reuters
A video of the scene, which Ms. Gaitan shared with The Globe and Mail, shows a chaotic melee in which police surround and try to detain a man trying to reach the school. Eventually, the police pulled the man to the ground and detained him. Ms. Gaitan said some officers pulled out tasers.
She said she could not believe the police presented themselves as heroic immediately after the shooting. “It took you too long,” she said.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who praised police earlier in the week, said they had not told him the whole truth about their answer.
“I was deceived. I am outraged by what happened, “he told reporters on Friday. He added that he expects law enforcement leaders, including the Texas Rangers and the FBI, “to get to the bottom of every fact with absolute certainty.”
On Friday, the same day as the police press conference, the National Rifle Association opened its annual meeting three hours down the road in Houston, with former President Donald Trump addressing the crowd. Thousands of protesters gathered in a park across the city’s congress center and huddled at police barricades to warn those present of successful lobbying against tougher gun control.
Kelly Walters and Timmy Walters brought their three-year-old daughter to the protest with a handmade sign that read, “Am I Next?”
Ms. Walters, a 39-year-old therapist and former teacher, said her daughter had already experienced a blockage when there was an active shooter across the street from her church kindergarten. The couple’s 19-year-old son, she said, has gone through 10 school blockades over the years.
Addressing the convention, former President Donald Trump said the solution to the mass shootings was to ensure that people could get more weapons. “The existence of evil is one of the best reasons to arm law-abiding citizens,” he said.
Mr Ramos legally bought two AR-15 rifles and huge quantities of ammunition in the days before the massacre. On Friday, police described the enormous size of his arsenal.
They found a total of 58 magazines in and around the school. There were two more in his house. In addition to his rifle, “Mr. Ramos bought and had a total of 1,657 rounds, “said Colonel McCrow.
The school had 142 used cartridges from Mr. Ramos’ weapons, another 22 outside the school and 22 at the site of his crashed truck.
Stephen McCrow, director of the Texas Public Safety Department, says police made the wrong decision.
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