Texas school shooting live updates: Police admit ‘wrong decision’ on door breach
(ABC NEWS) — A small town in rural Texas is reeling after a gunman opened fire at an elementary school on Tuesday, killing 19 children.Two teachers were also among those killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, according to authorities. The alleged gunman — identified by authorities as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, a student at Uvalde High School — is dead.
Five of the 17 people injured in the elementary school shooting remain in the hospital on Friday, according to officials.
Two children and one adult are being treated at University Hospital in San Antonio, two of whom are in serious condition, and two adults are at Brooke Army Medical Center, both in fair condition.
A 10-year-old girl was discharged from University Health in San Antonio.
Eight children and three adults were treated and discharged from Udalve Medical Center earlier this week.
As part of its ongoing investigation into Tuesday’s shooting, the Texas Department of Public Safety is conducting a review of law enforcement actions.
This comes after the visibly shaken Steven McCraw, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, revealed a cascading series of police failures before and during one of the deadliest school shootings in the nation’s history.
The incident commander, the chief of Uvalde ISD Police, wrongly believed the incident had transitioned from an active shooter situation to a barricaded subject situation, where the suspect had stopped firing and barricaded himself in a classroom, no longer posing a threat to children, McCraw said.
“He thought there was time,” McCraw said.
McCraw said there may have been a belief by the incident commander that no one was alive anymore inside the classrooms. But, he detailed multiple 911 calls made from inside the classrooms, on which callers explicitly said several children were alive and trapped inside with the shooter. Callers at several points asked for police to be sent in.
A 911 call was made at 12:03 p.m. from room 112 and lasted 23 seconds. McCraw did not identify the caller.
She called back at 12:10 p.m. and advised that there were multiple dead in the classroom, McCraw said.
The person then called again at 12:13 p.m. and again at 12:16 p.m., when said there were eight to nine students who were still alive, McCraw said.
A call was made by someone else from room 111 at 12:19 p.m., the caller hung up when another student told her to hang up, McCraw said.
At 12:21 p.m., three shots were heard over a 911 call. At 12:36 p.m., another 911 call was made by the initial caller and it lasted for 21 seconds. The student caller was told to stay on the line and be very quiet. She told 911 that the gunman shot the door, McCraw said.
At approximately 12:43 p.m. and 12:47 p.m., she asked 911 to please send the police now, McCraw said.
The caller said she could hear police next door at 12:46 p.m. At 12:50 p.m., the Border Patrol tactical unit finally breached the door and shot the suspect.
Suspect reportedly involved in online chats about guns, school shootings in recent weeks
Authorities shed more light on some of the suspect’s digital footprint in the weeks and months before Tuesday’s mass shooting.
In September 2021, suspected gunman Salvador Ramos asked his sister to buy him a gun and she “flatly refused,” Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, told reporters during a briefing Friday. He did not note where this exchange took place.
On Feb. 28, in an Instagram group chat with four people, they discussed “Ramos being a school shooter,” McCraw said.
The next day, on March 1, in an Instagram chat with four people, Ramos discussed buying a gun, according to McCraw.
Two days later, on March 3, in another four-person chat, someone said, “Word on the street is you are buying a gun,” according to McCraw. Ramos reportedly replied, “Just bought something.”
On March 14, Ramos posted on Instagram, “Ten more days,” according to McCraw. Someone replied, “Are you going to shoot up a school or something?” to which Ramos replied, “No. Stop asking dumb questions. You’ll see,” according to McCraw.
Investigators are also looking into people the suspect may have communicated with in video game chat rooms who “may have known something,” McCraw said.
Officers did not breach classroom for 35 minutes while shooter was inside
Steven McCraw, director of Texas Department of Public Safety, admitted it was the “wrong decision” for officers not to go into the classroom where the suspect was for 35 minutes after a tactical unit arrived. Children were inside the classroom with him, making 911 calls, McCraw said in a press conference Friday.
The incident commander believed he was dealing with a barricaded subject inside the school and the children were not at risk, he said.
A tactical team from Customs and Border Protection was on scene at 12:15 p.m., but did not breach the classroom until 12:50 p.m.
“Of course it wasn’t the right decision,” McCraw said. “It was the wrong decision.”
US Marshals say they never arrested or handcuffed anyone outside school
The U.S. Marshals said they never placed anyone in handcuffs, but they say they “maintained order and peace in the midst of the grief-stricken community that was gathering around the school,” in a statement posted on Twitter.
U.S. Marshals arrived on scene from Del Rio, Texas, at 12:10 p.m., and the first deputy U.S. Marshal went into the school to assist BORTAC, the elite tactical CBP team that ultimately shot the alleged shooter, the statement said.
They came from 70 miles away and got the first call around 11:30 a.m., according to the statement.
“These Deputy US Marshals also rendered emergency trauma first aid for multiple victims,” the statement said.
“Additional Deputy U.S. Marshals were asked to expand and secure the official law enforcement perimeter around the school,” the statement said. “Our hearts are heavy with sorrow and sadness at this horrific crime. We send our condolences to all the victims and families affected by this tragedy.”
Angeli Rose Gomez, a mother waiting outside for her children, told the Wall Street Journal she was one of numerous parents urging police and law enforcement officers to go into the school sooner, first politely and then more urgently. She said U.S. Marshals put her in handcuffs, and told her she was being arrested for intervening in an active investigation.
Angel Garza, the stepfather of one of the children killed in the shooting, ran to try to reach and help his child, and was restrained and handcuffed by a local police officer, Desirae Garza, the girl’s aunt, recounted to the New York Times.
10-year-old survivor recalls gunman saying: ‘You’re all gonna die’
There was blood in the hallway and children were covered in it, one of the students who survived the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, told ABC News.
“The shooter airing Friday on “Good Morning America.”
Salinas was a student in Irma Garcia‘s fourth-grade class. They were scheduled to graduate Thursday, but the ceremony was canceled because Garcia, another teacher and 19 third- and fourth-grade students were killed in Tuesday’s massacre.
Salinas said his aunt dropped him off for school on Tuesday morning.
“It was a normal day until my teacher said we’re on severe lockdown,” he told ABC News, “and then there was shooting in the windows.”
Salinas said the gunman came into his classroom, closed the door and told them, “You’re all going to die,” before opening fire.
“He shot the teacher and then he shot the kids,” Salinas said, recalling the cries and yells of students around him.
