Uvalde death doors
Design foiled rescue
The classroom doors at Robb Elementary School — which had metal frames and opened outward — presented an extra obstacle for law enforcement as they responded to the massacre that killed 19 children and two teachers.
The doors’ design is meant to keep an attacker from forcing their way in from the outside. But with 18-year-old shooter Salvador Ramos already inside the Uvalde, Texas, school on May 24, the design backfired and officers were not immediately able to get inside and prevent further carnage, The Washington Post reported Saturday.
“An outward-opening door is the worst-case scenario when you’re trying to breach,” Sgt. Scott Banes of the Fort Worth (Texas) Police Department, who spent 12 years on a special response team that trained for active shooters and similar calls, told the paper.
Breaching such doors can be particularly dangerous with a shooter on the other side, especially since authorities reportedly were not armed initially with tactical shields. Without the shields, anyone opening the door would be vulnerable to gunfire, the paper reported.
Another issue was that the tactical teams were equipped with heavy, cylinder-shaped battering ram agents — wellsuited for breaking through the deadbolt locks on the doors of residential homes, but posing a
problem with classroom doors, according to current and former US Customs and Border Protection officials briefed on the shooting.
Marcus “Sandy” Wall, a retired member of the Houston SWAT team, told the outlet that breaching outward-opening doors with steel frames is not efficient as such doors need to be pried open instead of rammed through.
The task can range in difficulty, based on hardware and whether the frame is attached to studs, Wall said.
But Curtis S. Lavarello, executive director of the School Safety Advocacy Council, told The Washington Post authorities do have a way to quickly open the secure doors, which have been added to classrooms across the country.
“It’s mind-boggling to someone with more than 25 years in law enforcement that you’re not entering that room for over an hour,” Lavarello said.
More farewells
The revelations about the police response come as loved ones bid farewell over the weekend to two more Robb Elementary victims.
Mourners gathered at First Baptist Church in Uvalde Saturday for the funeral of Alexandria Aniyah Rubio, 10, who was “driven, athletic, intelligent and fun,” according to her obituary. Alexandria played softball and basketball, like her mother, and was an “opinionated and an impassioned debater, just like her mother.”
Eva Mireles, 44, the fourthgrade teacher who died shielding her students, was laid to rest after a funeral Mass at Sacred Heart Catholic Church on Friday.
“We just love her, and she’s our hero,” Mireles’ friend, Angie Vera, told the San Antonio Express-News.