Topline
Texas authorities have faced mounting criticism for offering contradicting reports and retracting key details about the timeline of the shooting that left 19 students and two teachers dead at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, last week, as the public rages over the amount of time it took for officers to confront and neutralize the 18-year-old gunman.
Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw speaks at a press conference using a crime … [+] scene outline of Robb Elementary School showing the path of the gunman outside the school in Uvalde, Texas, on May 27, 2022. (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)
Key Facts
“Brave resource officer”: Texas Department of Public Safety Regional Director Victor Escalon retracted an initial claim Texas DPS Director Steven McCraw made that a “a brave resource officer” confronted the gunman outside of Robb Elementary School, saying at a press conference last week that the report was “not accurate” and that the shooter, Salvador Ramos, walked into the school “unobstructed.”
Officer at school: McCraw further clarified last week that the officer was not on campus at the time of the shooting—but was close enough that he was one of the first responding officers on the scene—and officials have not addressed why the school resource officer was not at the school at the time of the shooting.
“Did contain him”: McCraw initially said the first responding officers on the scene “did engage immediately” with Ramos and “did contain him” in a conjoined set of classrooms, though he later said the first three officers entered the school minutes after Ramos, but he had already locked himself inside of the classroom and fired toward the officers from inside the classroom, causing graze wounds to two of the officers.
“Without hesitation”: Texas DPS Lt. Chris Olivarez made a similar claim in an interview on the Today show, saying officers responded “within a moment’s notice” and “without hesitation tried to make entry into that school,” though according to the most current police timeline provided by McCraw, it took officers two minutes to enter the school after Ramos, and it took nearly hour for tactical teams to enter the school after Ramos entered.
Propped door: On Tuesday, Texas officials reportedly reversed an earlier claim that a teacher had propped open a door five minutes before Ramos entered the school and instead said the teacher had closed the door prior to the shooting, but the door did not lock as it should have.
Don Flanery, a lawyer for the teacher, told the San Antonio Express-News his client had propped the door open with a rock while carrying food for a class party inside, but quickly closed the door while calling 911 after she saw Ramos walking toward the school.
5 minutes outside: Escalon said last week that the gunman was outside of the school for about 12 minutes before walking inside and locking himself inside a classroom, but McCraw later updated the timeline, indicating that the shooter was inside the school within five minutes of crashing his pickup truck into a ditch outside.
Ramos in custody: Uvalde Police initially claimed that Ramos was in police custody, but the department later clarified that a U.S. Border Patrol tactical team killed him after breaching the classroom he had barricaded himself in.
What We Don’t Know
Officials still have not answered why the incident commander, Uvalde school police chief Pete Arredondo, did not consider the school an active shooter situation, even as children and teachers from inside called 911 for nearly 40 minutes after police arrived—a move McCraw called the “wrong decision.” According to a timeline of events provided by McCraw, the first 911 call coming from inside the school came at 12:03 p.m.—30 minutes after Ramos walked inside—as there were 19 officers in the hallway of the school. The caller called back at 12:16 p.m. to say there were nearly 10 students still alive inside Classroom 112. Texas State Sen. Roland Gutierrez revealed Thursday that the 911 calls coming from inside the school were not being shared with Arredondo, which he called a “system failure,” and Gutierrez told the Associated Press Friday that Arredondo did not have his radio with him at all. It is unknown if first responders could have saved some of the students if law enforcement had not waited for tactical units to arrive before breaching the door of the classrooms.
Big Number
77 minutes. That’s how long it took for law enforcement to breach the doors of the classroom after Ramos entered the school, according to a timeline of events provided by McGraw on Friday. Ramos walked inside the school at 11:33 a.m., and the Border Patrol unit entered the classroom at 12:50 p.m. using keys obtained from a janitor. When asked at a press conference why authorities didn’t engage the shooter sooner, Escalon said, “that’s a tough question,” adding there was “a lot going on” and that it was “a complex situation.”
Crucial Quote
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he was “misled” after hearing updated information on the timeline from police on May 27, having earlier praised the police response. “As everybody has learned, the information that I was given turned out in part to be inaccurate,” Abbott said. “And I am absolutely livid about that.”
Key Background
Ramos legally purchased two AR platform rifles and hundreds of rounds of ammunition last week—just days after his 18th birthday—and shot his grandmother in the face before driving to the school, where he crashed a pickup truck into a ditch across the street. Police have faced intense criticism for allowing Ramos to be inside the school for nearly 80 minutes, a decision that appears to clash with normal active-shooter tactics that encourage police to confront gunmen immediately. Parents pleaded with officers outside the school waiting for tactical units to arrive to go inside and rescue their children, and some parents were pinned down and detained for allegedly interfering with the police investigation.
Further Reading
Texas Official: ‘Wrong Decision’ Not To Quickly Breach Uvalde Classroom Where Shooter Was Barricaded (Forbes)
Police Response Blasted In Texas Shooting That Left 19 Children Dead (Forbes)
