There are still many unanswered questions concerning the heinous shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Salvador Ramos, 18, shot and killed 19 kids and two teachers. He also shot his grandmother in the face following an argument prior to his senseless rampage. We don’t know his motive. He was shot and killed by a Border Patrol agent. What we do know is that an unimaginable tragedy has struck this small border city. It’s the third deadliest school shooting in American history, and Democrats wasted no time trying to score political points. We don’t even have a concrete timeline yet.
The death toll fluctuated before landing at that horrible 19 figure. It was originally reported that Ramos barricaded himself in one classroom. Now, it could be multiple. The latest disturbing development involves the police, and it’s not comforting at all. The Associated Press is reporting that officers remained outside of the school for nearly an hour before entering, facing anxious parents who urged them to enter the facility to stop the shooter (via Associated Press):
Frustrated onlookers urged police officers to charge into the Texas elementary school where a gunman’s rampage killed 19 children and two teachers, witnesses said Wednesday, as investigators worked to track the massacre that lasted upwards of 40 minutes and ended when the 18-year-old shooter was killed by a Border Patrol team.
“Go in there! Go in there!” nearby women shouted at the officers soon after the attack began, said Juan Carranza, 24, who saw the scene from outside his house, across the street from Robb Elementary School in the close-knit town of Uvalde. Carranza said the officers did not go in.
[…]
Upset that police were not moving in, he raised the idea of charging into the school with several other bystanders.
“Let’s just rush in because the cops aren’t doing anything like they are supposed to,” he said. “More could have been done.”
“They were unprepared,” he added.
Minutes earlier, Carranza had watched as Salvador Ramos crashed his truck into a ditch outside the school, grabbed his AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle and shot at two people outside a nearby funeral home who ran away uninjured.
Officials say he “encountered” a school district security officer outside the school, though there were conflicting reports from authorities on whether the men exchanged gunfire. After running inside, he fired on two arriving Uvalde police officers who were outside the building, said Texas Department of Public Safety spokesperson Travis Considine. The police officers were injured.
After entering the school, Ramos charged into one classroom and began to kill.
Initial reports did not mention that the police were there prior to the shooting, but the hesitation to enter could be due to two officers being hurt in the initial moments of this horrific crime. The Border Patrol agent who shot and killed Ramos was also nearly killed given the pictures of his head wound. Is this like Marjory Stoneman Douglas in Florida? That’s not a debate that’s constructive right now. I will say that the school resource officer at Marjory, Scot Peterson, did absolutely nothing which led to his termination. The security guard at Robb engaged Ramos.
Still, for members of the community and parents especially, the fact that police were there and did nothing for 40 minutes is not comforting. Yes, police are the first ones to enter the fray. They’re supposed to face danger and neutralize threats to ensure public safety but two of their own went down and the situation was chaos. Still, it’s just all-around heartache for this city. And it really doesn’t help that politicians, like Beto O’Rourke, would think this could be the moment to remind people he’s running for governor.
Update: Texas Department of Public Saftey says Ramos was not confronted when he entered school (via NBC News):
Contrary to information officials released earlier, the gunman was not confronted by a school police officer before entering Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, state Department of Public Safety South Texas Regional Director Victor Escalon said Thursday.
The gunman walked into the school at 11:40 a.m. Tuesday and started firing. Four minutes later, local and school police followed him inside.
“They hear gunfire, they take rounds, they move back, get cover, and during that time, they approach where the suspect is at,” Escalon said. “… Officers are there, the initial officers, they receive gunfire. They don’t make entry initially because of the gunfire they’re receiving.”
In the time since the shooting, questions have been raised about the that time elapsed between when the shooter crashed his vehicle outside the school and when he was fatally shot by a Border Patrol officer inside the classroom he barricaded himself in to unleash terror.
State and federal law enforcement officials had said earlier that they don’t have a timeline yet on the precise sequence of events.
Spencer has a post on this as well, adding that everything authorities have told us over the past 36-48 hours or so has been contradicted. It also took an hour for tactical teams to arrive on the scene.
It was not a helpful Texas DPS presser, and now more questions remain. We still don’t have a concrete timeline. We’ll keep you updated as best we can with this ongoing situation.
This is horrific & also suggests (unless I’m missing something?) that there were hostages/hiding kids still being held/killed up until the moment that Border Patrol agent/team finally showed up and took the killer out. The timeline is shifting & incomplete, to put it mildly. https://t.co/FVgbL3OhyU
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) May 26, 2022
Why was the schools entrances unlocked during school hours? If a parent needed in a staff member should have greeted them at the door. This blame can be placed directly on the backs of the teachers unions and the democratic party.
I was wondering the same thing. I live in Illinois and you can’t gain entry into any school without being buzzed into a vestibule and showing ID. Once verified and approved, they let you into the main entrance.
The door being unlocked is the critical mistake made. The shooting in Jonesboro Arkansas was the first one that real shook me up. In 1998, two middle school boys pulled a fire alarm. After the fire door close and locked as students and teachers went outside, the boys opened fire. Four children and a teacher were killed. My school had woods behind it. For months I always looked towards the wood to see if anyone was out there before I let the door close for recess or my PE classes.
We need to wait for the facts to come out before criticizing anyone. Restricting the bad guy to one room may have saved every other child and teacher in the school. Give a few days and if the law enforcement response was inadequate we will know it.
I wanna know, How did this Evil Little POS, who supposedly worked at Dairy Queen, Bought (2) Daniel Defense DDM4’s at around $1,800 and Up… Each, also Body Armor, and almost 400 hundred rounds of Ammo???? This Little Bastard have Help??? And was the Ford F250 His or the Grandmothers????
Sounds like the Schools Safety Committee failed to plan, or if they did have a plan then they failed at training properly the staff and administration on the protocol for a lockdown. I speak as a former school safety committee member, and as my company former safety chairman and trainer that was an adult disable program now retired.