Shooting in Texas: police were armed to neutralize the attack at the Uvalde school in “three minutes”

The author of Uvalde (Texas) shooting He may have been confronted by police within minutes of entering the elementary school where he killed 19 students and 2 teachers on May 24, Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), said Tuesday. .

“Three minutes would have made a difference”, assured before a hearing in the Senate of Texas.

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The colonel made it clear that there were enough armed personnel and protection, that time was wasted and that no one even tried to open a door, which was also broken.

He emphasized that he believes the door was not locked, adding that it wouldn’t even have been necessary to wait for the keys if it was, because it had to be broken down and they had the tools.

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McCraw described the police action as an “abject failure and antithetical to anything we have known in the last two decades” and especially criticized Uvalde Schools Police Chief Pete Arredondo.

He added that teachers, not law enforcement, should be commended for their actions during the shooting.

His criticism adds to the release in the last few hours of images taken from the school’s security video in which multiple armed police officers are seen waiting in a corridor of two school classrooms.

“The only thing that prevented a hall of dedicated officers from entering Rooms 111 and 112 was the commander on scene, who put the lives of the officers before the lives of the children,” McCraw lamented.

The colonel testified today before a Texas Senate committee investigating the Uvalde shooting of 18-year-old Salvador Ramos with an AR-15 rifle.

The officers would have waited about an hour, despite the fact that the doors apparently were never closed, said the Austin Statesman newspaper and the KVUE-TV channel, which published the images.

“Multiple officers were inside Robb Elementary School with rifles and at least one ballistic shield at 11.52am (local time) on the day of the shooting, new video and other evidence shows. They didn’t go into the classroom for another 58 minutes,” lamented investigative journalist Tony Plohetsk, who works for both outlets.

The images add to the complaints of parents who, from the day of the massacre, begged the agents to enter the school and have since questioned the authorities’ delay in doing so.

The investigations indicate that at least 77 minutes passed between the entrance of the author of the shooting and his death, shot by the officers.

Investigators believe that Ramos could not have closed the classroom door.

The officers in the hallway wanted to immediately enter rooms 111 and 112, which were interconnected, and even had an officer’s daughter, but it was unclear who was in charge.

Ramos was able to enter the school without problems with a rifle after shooting his grandmother in the face in her residence.

A special agent who arrived on the scene, about 20 minutes after the initial deployment, asked the policemen: “Do you know if there are children there?” And he added: “If there are children there, we should go in there.”

“Whoever is in charge will determine it,” was the response he had, detailed the Texas Tribune.

After that comment, nearly another hour passed before a Border Patrol tactical team broke down the classroom doors and killed the gunman.

Authorities have shared conflicting information about who was in charge, who confronted the shooter, and when.

In the midst of the controversy is Arredondo, who assured that the doors were indeed closed and waiting for a master key.

“The commander on site made terrible decisions,” McCraw said of Arredondo.

Source: Elcomercio

Ronald Payne

I, Ronald Payne, am a journalist and author who dedicated his life to telling the stories that need to be said. I have over 7 years of experience as a reporter and editor, covering everything from politics to business to crime.