TEXAS COPS: ‘WE GOT IT WRONG’
PUPILS trapped inside a Texas elementary school class with a gunman repeatedly called 911 during his deadly attack, including one girl who pleaded: “Please send the police now”, as officers waited more than an hour to breach the room.
The commander at the scene in Uvalde believed that 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos was barricaded inside adjoining classrooms at Robb Elementary School and that children were no longer at risk, according to Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety.
“It was the wrong decision,” Mr McCraw said.
The latest briefing following Tuesday’s horrific events comes after authorities spent three days providing often conflicting and incomplete information about more than 60 minutes that elapsed between the time Ramos entered the school and when US Border Patrol agents unlocked the classroom door and killed him.
Three police officers followed Ramos into the building within two minutes.
In the next half an hour, as many as 19 officers piled into the hallway outside. But another 47 minutes passed before the Border Patrol tactical team breached the door, Mr McCraw said.
As the gunman fired at students, law enforcement officers from other agencies urged the school police chief to let them move in because children were in danger, two law enforcement officials said.
One of the officials said audio recordings from the scene capture officers from other agencies telling the school police chief that the shooter was still active and that the priority was to stop him.
Ramos killed 19 children and two teachers inside the room. His motive remains unclear, authorities said.
There was a barrage of gunfire shortly after Ramos entered the classroom where officers eventually killed him, but those shots were “sporadic” for much of the time that officers waited in the hallway, Mr McCraw said.
He said investigators do not know if children died during that time.
Throughout the attack, teachers and children repeatedly called 911 asking for help, including the girl who pleaded for the police, Mr McCraw said.
Young survivors of the attack said they pretended to be dead while waiting for help.
Miah Cerrillo, 11, told CNN that she covered herself with a friend’s blood in order to look dead.
After the shooter moved into an adjacent room, she could hear screams, more gunfire and music being blared by the gunman.
Samuel Salinas, 10, who also played dead, told ABC’s Good Morning America the assailant shot teacher Irma Garcia before firing on the children.
Questions have mounted over the amount of time it took officers to enter the school to confront the gunman. It was 11.28am (5.28pm BST) on Tuesday when Ramos’ Ford pickup slammed into a ditch behind the low-slung Texas school and the driver jumped out carrying an AR15-style rifle. Five minutes after that, authorities said, Ramos entered the school and found his way to the fourth grade classroom where he killed the 21 victims.
But it was not until around 12.50pm (6.50pm BST) that police killed Ramos, Mr McCraw said, when shots could be heard over a 911 call from a person inside the classroom as officers breached the room.
What happened during that time frame, in a working-class area near the edge of Uvalde, has fuelled mounting public anger and scrutiny over law enforcement’s response to the rampage.
“They say they rushed in,” said Javier Cazares, whose daughter, Jacklyn, was killed in the attack, and who raced to the school as the massacre unfolded.
“We didn’t see that.”