Deputy: Officers saw gunman before attack

UVALDE, TEXAS >> Two Uvalde city police officers passed up a fleeting chance to shoot a gunman outside Robb Elementary School before he went on to kill 21 people inside the school, a senior sheriff's deputy told The New York Times.

That would mean a second missed opportunity for officers to stop Salvador Ramos before the May 24 rampage inside the school that killed 19 children and two teachers. Officials said that a school district police officer drove past Ramos without seeing him in the school parking lot.

The unidentified officers, one of whom was armed with an AR-15-style rifle, said they feared hitting children playing in the line of fire outside the school, Chief Deputy Ricardo Rios of nearby Zavalla County told the newspaper.

The officers' chance of stopping Ramos passed quickly, perhaps in seconds, Rios said.

Messages from The Associated Press to Rios and the Zavala County Sheriff's Office have not been returned. The Zavala County sheriff's officials responded to the shooting in support of Uvalde and Uvalde County officers.

Rios said he had shared the information with a special Texas House committee investigating the school massacre.

Uvalde police officials agreed Friday to speak to the committee investigating, according to a Republican lawmaker leading the probe who had begun to publicly question why the officers were not cooperating sooner.

“Took a little bit longer than we initially had expected,” state Rep. Dustin Burrows said.

On Thursday, Burrows signaled impatience with Uvalde police, tweeting that most people had fully cooperated with their investigation “to help determine the facts” and that he didn't understand why the city's police “would not want the same.” He did not say which members of the department will meet with the committee, which is set to continue questioning witnesses in Uvalde on Monday about the attack that killed 19 students and two teachers.

Uvalde police did not reply to messages seeking comment. Weeks after one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history, law enforcement officials have stopped providing updates about the shooting.