A top law enforcement official said Friday that cops responding to the Uvalde school shooting “made the wrong decision” when they waited to breach the classroom door where a gunman had barricaded himself inside with children.
Texas Department of Public Safety Director Col. Steven McCraw said in a briefing Friday that the on-the-scene commander made the call that Tuesday’s carnage at Robb Elementary School had gone from an “active shooter” situation to a “barricaded suspect” situation.
In hindsight, “of course it wasn’t the right decision,” McCraw said. “It was the wrong decision, no question about it.” “There was no justification for that at all,” he said.
At least 100 rounds were fired by 18-year-old shooter Salvador Ramos, who entered the school through an unlocked door that had been propped open by a teacher before killing 19 students and two teachers.
After a gunman stormed their school on Friday, a teacher and two students made harrowing 911 calls to 911 while they were trapped inside. One student begged the dispatcher “please send police now,” according to police.
The calls continued until just before Ramos was killed, despite the belief of the authorities that the killing had come to an end. The teacher, who was not named, was among the dead, but the two children who made the 911 calls were found unharmed, according to the authorities.
According to the latest information, officers are still trying to figure out how and why Ramos was shot and killed an hour and a half after his rampage began.
It has emerged that officers were reluctant to enter the room where Ramos had barricaded himself because the on-scene commander, Uvalde school district Police Chief Pete Arredondo, believed that the killing had largely come to an end.
In the first four minutes, McCraw said, most of the shots were fired, and Arredondo mistook it for a barricade or hostage situation. It was a barricaded subject, he said, and the incident commander had time to deal with it because no children were in danger.
According to him, “there were 19 police officers in there.” A tactical breach was deemed necessary by the incident commander, but there was no shortage of officers or equipment to carry it out.
When Ramos shot and drove his grandmother’s pickup to the school, he began his rampage. Before Ramos crashed into a nearby ditch, a teacher had propped open the door at 11:27 am.
Two men were shot outside a nearby funeral home by Ramos, who emerged from the vehicle’s passenger-side door brandishing a long rifle and a bag of ammo. In order to get her phone, McGraw said, the teacher ran into the building and came back out, but she left the door propped open.
While Ramos walked across the parking lot and opened fire on the school building, she called 911, according to authorities.
According to McCraw’s account, an armed student resource officer was not stationed on campus, but instead heard a 911 call and drove toward an individual McCraw believed to be the suspect, only to find out that it was an actual teacher. When he did this, he drove right past the suspect, who had taken cover behind a vehicle and begun shooting at the school.
McCraw said that Ramos entered the building at 11:33 a.m. and entered Room 111, which was connected to Room 112 and where he fired at least 100 rounds. He said that three officers arrived two minutes later, contradicting earlier timelines from authorities.
“Graze wounds” were inflicted on two officers by Ramos’s gunfire, he said. In a whisper, a teacher in the classroom dialed 911 at 12:03 p.m. At 12:10 p.m., she called back to say that several students had died, and at 12:16 p.m., she said that eight or nine children were still alive.
Officials say it took a tactical unit of US Customs and Border Protection armed with ballistic shields until 12:50 p.m. to kill Ramos. Law enforcement had to get a key from a school janitor to get into the two connected classrooms, according to authorities.
Amid concerns the response was too slow, officials have been scrambling to provide an explanation. Between Ramos entering the classroom and being fatally shot, McGraw couldn’t say how many people had been killed.
Emergency response experts believe that a faster response could have prevented the slaughter or saved the lives of the injured.
Police found 58 magazines, including eight in the classrooms, according to McCraw. Between the ammo, he brought to the scene and the ammo found in his house, Ramos had 1,657 rounds. The room in which Ramos was assassinated had at least 35 bullet casings from police fire, including 27 of those found in the room.
In private messages to a user, Ramos stated that he planned to shoot his grandmother and the school, according to McCraw, but he never posted that information on Facebook. That was not the case. “It happened on a text message,” McCraw reported.
The month before, in September 2021, Ramos had asked his sister to assist him in purchasing a firearm, but she flatly declined.
In an Instagram conversation on Feb. 28, 2022, he discussed the possibility of him being a school shooter. He talked about buying a gun on March 1. The question of whether he had purchased a gun came up again on March 3 during a four-person chat with the same group. For whatever reason, Ramos told McCraw he had just bought something.
“Ten more days” was a chilling message he delivered on March 14. A user inquired, “Are you planning on shooting up the school?” According to authorities, he said, “No, stop asking stupid questions” and “you’ll see.”
In the wake of the massacre, disturbing videos have emerged showing parents pleading with police to storm the school while the shooter is still inside with the children. Police can be seen in the video footage holding one parent down while another is pushed to the ground.
“We’re parents now!” In a video obtained by the Washington Post, a mother begs an officer to “take him the f—-k out!” One man yelled at the police, “You know that they are kids right?” The officers appear to be standing their ground.
There is no way for them to defend themselves because they are so young.” Children under the age of six are unable to defend themselves from a gunman!”
In the opinion of some police officers, lives might have been saved if officers stormed the classroom earlier. earlier. Experts believe that those who were injured could have received life-saving treatment.
When confronted with an active shooter, officers must track down the source of the gunfire and “keep shooting until the subject is dead, period,” according to McCraw. You don’t have time to wait for tactical gear if you’re confronted by an active shooter, ” he said.
A “barricaded subject” or a “barricaded with hostage subject,” according to doctrine, can be changed to an “active shooter” situation if there is reason to believe there are people still alive inside. However, if the shooting continues, everyone at the door must return to an “active shooter” position.
Parents rushed to the school in fear for the safety of their children after receiving alerts about an active shooter. A group of officers can be seen blocking them and yelling at some of them to “take cover.”
“You’re afraid you’ll be killed by a shot?” A woman can be heard screaming at a police officer. Without a vest, “I’ll go in! — I’ll!” An even more irate parent yells, “Are your kids in there?!” No!”
“There are a lot of possibilities” for why police didn’t rush in sooner, or if another group could have reached the gunman before the tactical unit arrived, said Escalon to reporters. A “very serious error,” according to one expert interviewed by The Washington Post.
Maria Haberfeld, a professor of police science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan, said, “In my mind, there should have been an immediate response with the first force response.” You’ll lose a victim every second and every minute that you delay.
An off-duty border agent reportedly entered the school and went straight to the wing where he knew his daughter attended second grade, but no other parents were allowed in, according to the reports that have surfaced so far. Upon arriving at his daughter’s school, Jacob Albarado told the New York Times that he assisted in the evacuation of other students, including those of his wife’s class.