Uvalde Police Response

Uvalde's local incident commander thought the active shooting had stopped and that the gunman had barricaded himself inside the school.

Officers tried to negotiate with the shooter, officials have said, but the man “did not respond.” McCraw said the gunman fired more than 100 rounds at that point. McCraw gave more details about the shooting Friday, revealing that the gunman entered the school through a back door that minutes before had been propped open by a teacher. Law enforcement officials have faced increasing questions in the days since the shooting about whether officers on the scene could have acted more quickly to stop the gunman. Local police officers arrived at the school and entered at 11:35 a.m., McCraw said, but fell back after two officers were shot and wounded by the gunman. McCraw also detailed harrowing 911 calls by teachers and students trapped inside with the gunman, including one at 12:47 p.m. — more than an hour after the shooter entered the school — when a student begged the 911 operator: “Please send the police now.”

Law enforcement killed the gunman more than an hour after the first officers arrived at an elementary school in Texas. Nineteen students and two teachers ...

Police officials have said that with the gunman isolated in a classroom, the officers on scene focused on evacuating students and staff members from other classrooms in order to prevent additional fatalities. Two officers provided cover, guns drawn, he said, and two others guided the children out on the sidewalk. Chief Rodriguez said in a statement on Thursday that officers from his department went into the school “within minutes” after the shooting began, and that more than one of them had been shot by the gunman. “There’s an active shooter,” she said in the message. So Mr. Albarado quickly made a plan with other officers at the scene: evacuate as many children as possible. “There were plenty of men out there armed to the teeth that could have gone in faster,” said Javier Cazares, 43, who arrived at the school on Tuesday as the attack was taking place. As the officers fell, the gunman continued shooting, said the state police official. “It’s common sense: If they had shot him down, the kids could have come out through the door.” During that terrifying time — well over an hour — parents of students who were trapped in the school gathered outside the building as word spread of the shooting. Parents had massed outside the school on Tuesday as gunfire erupted inside, urging the police who were holding them at bay to go in and stop the carnage. Miguel Palacios, a small-business owner, said frantic parents were so upset that at one point they tried to take down the school’s chain-link fence. He fired the shots, ran, jumped a fence and headed towards the school.”

Col. Steven McCraw of the Texas Department of Public Safety said Friday that the incident commander believed responders were dealing with a barricaded ...

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Uvalde officials hosted an active shooter training session two months before Tuesday's mass shooting, raising questions about whether officers ignored their ...

In 2014, the FBI released a study of 160 active shooter incidents that had occurred since 2000. At 11:33 a.m., soon after the gunman entered the school through a door that had been propped open, he entered two classrooms and fired at least 100 rounds, McCraw said. In the wake of the 1999 high school shooting in Columbine, Colorado, where twelve students and one teacher were killed, federal and state law enforcement officials developed new practices for equipping and training first responders. "What we are hearing from Texas law enforcement officials seems to be inconsistent with the operational philosophy that has guided the response to active shooter situations for well over a decade," Cohen said. But the door to the classroom wasn't breached until 12:50 p.m. -- after a janitor provided keys to unlock the door, said McGraw. "Time lost by delayed action is likely to result in additional casualties." "First responders to the active shooter scene will usually be required to place themselves in harm's way," according to a lengthy course description posted online by the Texas agency that developed the training. Over the past decade, law enforcement officers in cities and states across the country have received training reflecting such policies, according to Cohen. The course that the Uvalde school district hosted in March was developed by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, which oversees the certification of police officers throughout the state and requires school-based officers to take the "active shooter response" course. It was the wrong decision, period," he said. McCraw said officers inside the school didn't take action sooner, because earlier on the on-site commander believed the situation had transitioned from an "active shooter to a barricaded subject ... and there were no children at risk" -- a belief McCraw said was mistaken. On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the DPS, Lt. Chris Olivarez, said on national TV that at one point on Tuesday, police officers on the scene decided to "focus" on evacuating students and teachers "around the school," instead of racing to the shooter's location -- even as they heard more gunshots. At a press conference on Friday, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw acknowledged that officers on the scene miscalculated what was unfolding, failing to go after the gunman sooner.

Gunman Salvador Ramos opened fire on Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday, killing at least 19 children and two teachers.

According to McCraw, the school district’s chief of police had told officers and Border Patrol agents on the scene not to engage with Ramos, believing there was “ no one living anymore” in the classroom and that “no kids were at risk.” This was despite the fact that calls were still coming in to 911 at the time — including from at least two students. So we’re gonna need people on the ground, whether they’re trained police officers or whether they are people that are trained in the school.” Castro then pointed out a few inconsistencies in official reports including “whether the school security officer and the gunman exchanged fire outside the school” and “how long law enforcement officers were in adjoining classrooms while the gunman barricaded himself in a classroom with students and teachers.” The New York Times reports that two members of the Uvalde police department did go into the school once the massacre was underway but “fell back” after being shot and called in the tactical team. On Thursday, Chris Olivarez appeared on CNN’s The Situation Room and said that a reason police took so long to enter the school was because they didn’t know where the gunman was. She saw other parents pepper-sprayed and tackled to the ground and Tasered, she added. Angeli Rose Gomez told The Wall Street Journal that she drove to her children’s school after hearing about the attack and saw police “just standing outside the fence. There was just one of him.” Another parent who arrived at the school after the shooting began told the Washington Post he saw other parents breaking windows in an attempt to evacuate the kids. “And that is where the carnage began.” Ultimately, McCraw said, “the subject was able to make it into the school.” Steven C. McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, has since said that the order by local police officers to not breach the classroom Ramos occupied for more than an hour “was the wrong decision. In the hours since the shooting — the deadliest at an elementary school since Sandy Hook, the 22nd at a school so far this year, and the second mass shooting to occur within a ten-day time span — questions emerged about why this pattern keeps playing out.

Uvalde law enforcement noted they made the "wrong decision" when they didn't confront the gunman sooner.

Another, Javier Cazares, told the news service that “more could have been done”: his daughter, Jacklyn Cazares, was killed in the shooting, and when Javier Cazares arrived at the school, he tried to devise a plan to rush into the building since officers were still gathered outside. The school spent $450,000 on security and monitoring services in the 2019-20 fiscal year, up from $200,000 the year before, CNN reported. The guy shot at the cop. He was charged with counts of child neglect, culpable negligence and perjury; he could face the death penalty if convicted. Half an hour later, there were a total of 19 officers in the school, McCraw said Friday. At least some details suggest that police did not, in fact, try to stop the gunman as quickly as possible. Bystanders at the scene said officers were just standing there. Yet officials reported on Thursday that there was no officer who confronted the gunman when he arrived. What happened during the 90 minutes between the gunman entering the school and police killing him? There was a stark contrast between previous official statements, which described the police response as immediate, and Friday’s press conference in the face of mounting evidence to the contrary. At 11:28 am on Tuesday, the gunman crashed his grandmother’s pickup truck outside the school. “Of course, from the benefit of hindsight.

For nearly 50 minutes, children repeatedly called 911, pleading for help as a gunman terrorized them while a phalanx of officers waited outside their ...

Protesters are extending their hand, “open and unarmed,” to work together to make sure “this no longer happens in this country,” he added. And he pledged to politically defeat politicians who have been “purchased” by the NRA, urging audience members to “get in their faces” before any more children are killed in mass shootings. “It’s not about them lying; it’s about the ability of this rural law enforcement’s office to even conduct these investigations,” she said. Spector said that individual officers she knew were not lacking in the courage to run into the face of a shooting. But their response — and their lack of willingness to listen — has only further incensed the community, Cazares added. He added: “Restricting the fundamental human right of law-abiding Americans to defend themselves is not the answer. Trump said the nation must change its approach to mental health and bemoaned the problem of broken families. “The next time I ain’t voting for you … and I will tell him that to his face.” “Ultimately, as we all know, what stops armed bad guys is armed good guys,” said Cruz, who pressed ahead with plans to address the convention even as his fellow Texas Republican, Sen. John Cornyn, pulled out. “It took them four days to finally admit that and be clear about it,” Castro said of the briefing. “He didn’t hesitate to take off, mid-haircut … so I know a lot of law enforcement officers tried to get to the school, but it is painful because we wanted fast action and it didn’t happen.” “I saw those parents running, wanting to go get their children and the police tackling the parents, and that should have never happened,” Flores said.

Numerous instances of mistakes, misjudgments or misfortune allowed the massacre of 19 children and two teachers in a Texas school to continue.

At 12:50 p.m., shots were fired and could be heard on the call, he said. There were 35 spent law enforcement cartridges in the school, McCraw later said. At 12:43 p.m. and 12:47 p.m., "she asked 911 to please send the police now." Instead, a resource officer who was not on campus heard the 911 call of a man with a gun and "drove immediately" to the school, McCraw said. The caller rang again at 12:13 p.m. and 12:16 p.m. and said there were "eight to nine students alive." The men "immediately" began running as the gunman shot at them, McCraw said. But they didn't breach the door until 12:50, McCraw said. In an active shooter situation, officers are not required to wait on tactical gear," McCraw said. They were "later followed" by three more police officers and a county deputy sheriff, McCraw said. The gunman entered the school through the open door two minutes later, at 11:33 a.m., McCraw said. Uvalde has a part-time SWAT team, and the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District has six officers, McCraw said. "Ultimately, this is tragic," McCraw said.

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — Students trapped inside a classroom with a gunman repeatedly called 911 during this week's attack on a Texas elementary school, ...

He heard about four gunshots before he and the others were ordered back to a parking lot. “A lot of us were arguing with the police, ‘You all need to go in there. “The information that I was given turned out, in part, to be inaccurate,” he said. But 15 or 20 minutes passed before the arrival of officers with shields, equipped to confront the gunman, he said. And she drew hearts on their hands with marker, so she could identify them if the worst happened, Johnson said, as she put flowers near 21 white crosses honoring the victims. And even that is usually quite inaccurate,” Dorn said. When that officer did respond, he unknowingly drove past Ramos, who was crouched behind a car parked outside and firing at the building, McCraw said. Two minutes later, three local police officers arrived and entered the building through the same door, followed soon after by four others, McCraw said. Ramos was still inside at 12:10 p.m. when the first U.S. Marshals Service deputies arrived. There was just one of him.” He did not address why the door was propped open. It was 11:28 a.m. Tuesday when Ramos’ Ford pickup slammed into a ditch behind the low-slung Texas school and the driver jumped out carrying an AR-15-style rifle.

A former District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department detective sounded off on law enforcement inaction during the Uvalde Texas school shooting.

I only want the innocent children who died to forgive me." "He had his reasons for doing what he did. Well, we've been told by [Texas DPS] Col. Steve McCraw the wrong decision was made."

The police chief who reportedly made the call not to immediately send officers into Robb Elementary School to confront a gunman was elected to Uvalde's City ...

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I am livid about what happened,” the governor said at a tense press conference in Uvalde. “The information I was given turned out, in part, to be inaccurate ...

He has provided a similar response in the past when pressed for special sessions on various issues. McCraw said he did not know why the school officer was not on site at the time of the shooting. Abbott's Friday appearance in Uvalde came as he skipped the National Rifle Association convention in Houston, where he instead deliver pre-recorded remarks that were shown to the audience minutes before his news conference began. Roland Gutierrez, the Democratic state senator who represents Uvalde, interrupted the news conference to advocate for a special session, emotionally pleading with Abbott. He said the Texas Rangers and FBI would be investigating the law enforcement response. But it came out earlier Friday that police had made a crucial error, waiting to enter a classroom because they believed it was no longer an active-shooter situation.

Friday was supposed to be the first day of summer break for students in Uvalde, Texas. Instead the community is still reeling from the shooting that left 19 ...

It's been striking to see over the last three days just how much of that safety burden has shifted to children in this situation. Certainly, as we reported, there will be some level of accountability. So, Amna, as you talk to them, where does all this frustration, this anger that they're feeling go? She believes, if police had acted sooner, that more children would be alive today, like her daughter — Judy. What if more had been done? What if police had acted sooner? Uvalde's collective grief has manifested here, a makeshift memorial in the town square. I am livid about what happened. And they knew that, when they were going up, they wouldn't be coming back down. I don't know how much of a difference it would have made if — maybe they could have acted faster. They need to not forget the babies, the kids. Friday was supposed to be the first day of summer break for students in Uvalde, Texas. Instead the community is still reeling from the shooting that left 19 children and two school teachers dead.

As a broken community tries to make sense of a massacre that took the lives of 19 young children and two teachers, authorities have offered shifting ...

12:51 p.m.: Through the young girl's 911 call, there are loud noises and officers can be heard moving children out of the room, McCraw said. 12:47 p.m.: The student asks for police again, McCraw said. 12:03 p.m.: Officers continue to arrive in the hallway of the school. The call lasted a minute and 23 seconds. There was no school resource officer that confronted the suspect outside the school, as officials had previously described, McCraw said. The shooter told her that on Monday, he received a package of ammunition, she said. The suspect begins firing at them, McCraw said. In a separate statement, the US Marshals Service said it received a call for assistance at 11:30 a.m. from a Uvalde Police Department officer. Two witnesses meanwhile, who were at a funeral home across the street from the school, hear the crash and go to see what happened. Two days later, there was another group chat in which someone said, "word on the street" was that the suspect was buying a gun. On March 14, the shooter wrote in an Instagram post, "10 more days." On March 1, the shooter had an Instagram chat with several others in which he discussed buying a gun, McCraw said.

Here's what we know about the police department and school police officers in Uvalde, Tex., and their response to the mass shooting.

Sara Spector, who worked as a prosecutor in Uvalde about a decade ago, said officers in the area tend to be both underpaid and undertrained. The curriculum teaches officers about Columbine and the shift in police response tactics since then, as well as the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla., in 2018. The Texas legislature in 2019 approved a measure that required such training for all school police officers. The police response to the Texas school massacre was led by the chief of a six-officer police department that oversees about eight schools. In March, the school district police hosted active shooter training at Uvalde High School, according to a post on the agency’s Facebook page. Officials now say the school-system police chief erred by deciding the gunman had shifted from an active shooter to a “barricaded subject,” and making no effort to break down the door and get inside.

The law enforcement official who made the decision not to breach the Uvalde elementary school classroom where a gunman was shooting children and teachers ...

A flyer for the event he posted stated topics covered would include priorities for school-based law enforcement and how to "Stop the Killing." A board of trustees for the school district approved Arredondo to head the department in 2020. "We can never have enough training," he told the newspaper. At the same time, children inside Robb Elementary School classrooms 111 and 112 in Uvalde repeatedly called 911 and pleaded for help, he said. "From the benefit of hindsight where I'm sitting now, of course it was not the right decision," McCraw said of the supervisor's call not to confront the shooter. Arredondo is identified on the Uvalde school district website as the police chief and was introduced as the police chief at news conferences on Tuesday in the hours following the shooting at Robb Elementary.

Police admitted to a stunning string of failures — including driving right by the gunman — in responding to the Texas school shooting while children were ...

“That was the decision, that was the thought process at that particular point in time.” They also revealed that the gunman was not confronted by a school police officer upon arriving and entered the building unobstructed. Five others were found on the ground, and one was in the rifle the gunman wielded. Police said earlier that a school resource officer had confronted the shooter before he entered the building.hich Black, Asian and Latino communities have been targeted. Three were on the shooter’s body, two were found in classroom 112 and six in classroom 111. “Anytime something tragic like that happens, we want to know why it happened and how we can do better next time.” - A school resource officer was not already stationed at the school. At least 100 shots were fired “based on the audio evidence at that time,” he said. At 12:16, she said there were “eight to nine students alive,” McCraw said. Speaking on the delay in breaching the classroom where the shooter was, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw said that “from the benefit of hindsight where I’m sitting now, of course it was not the right decision. That is when the gunman was fatally shot. Just two minutes later, at least three police officers entered the same door the gunman did.

Police have been labeled "cowards" for their response to the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, this week.

Abbott previously said that police acted with "amazing courage" during the shooting and that the massacre "could have been worse" if not for their actions. The leaders of the Police Departments that are full of cowards should resign immediately." Conservative commentator Eric Bolling called the police response "unforgivable" during his Newsmax TV show on Friday, noting that officers did not enter the classroom despite knowing "there was an active shooter" inside with children. What is the purpose of police if they won't do their jobs? Texas Department of Public Safety (TDPS) Lieutenant Chris Olivarez told CNN that police did not engage with Ramos further due to concerns that they would have taken fire and officers "could have been shot." They are no heroes."