(Trends Wide Spanish) — Since 19 children and two teachers were killed in Uvalde, Texas, authorities have repeatedly changed their version of what happened before, during and after the bloody shooting in two adjoining classrooms.
The May 24 massacre at Robb Elementary School marked at least the 30th shooting at an elementary, middle and high school so far this year and was the deadliest school shooting in nearly a decade.
Now, mourners agonize over the shifting police narrative and the horror of learning the victims were trapped with a gunman for more than an hour, despite repeated 911 calls for help from inside classrooms.
Here are some of the key details that have changed since the deadly shooting:
Did the attacker clash with someone outside of the school?
BEFORE: He “confronted” a school agent
Authorities initially said that after the gunman shot his grandmother and crashed a pickup truck into a ditch near Robb Elementary School, a school resource officer confronted the suspect and “attacked” him before he entered the school. school.
“Unfortunately, he was able to enter the facility and then from there he entered several classrooms and began discharging his firearm,” Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt. Erick Estrada said on May 24.
NOW: He “entered without hindrance”
A day after the shooting, Texas DPS Regional Director Victor Escalon said that when the shooter arrived at the school, he “initially entered unimpeded.”
“So from grandma’s house, to the school (ditch), to the school, nobody confronted him,” Escalon said.
On May 27, Texas DPS Director Col. Steven McCraw noted that there were no school resource officers at Robb Elementary School when the shooter arrived on campus.
“The (Uvalde) Consolidated Independent School District has six officers, and they didn’t have one at that location,” McCraw said.
He also said that no school resource officers confronted the attacker before he entered the school, although “it was certainly said in preliminary interviews.” He said a school district police officer heard a 911 call about a man with a gun. The officer drove to Robb Elementary School and ran to the back of the school toward a person he thought was the suspect. But that person turned out to be a teacher.
“In doing so, (the school resource officer) walked past the suspect, who was crouched behind a vehicle, where he began firing at the school” before entering, McCraw said.
How did the attacker get into the school?
Mourners gather outside Robb Elementary School. (Credit: REUTERS/Nuri Vallbona)
BEFORE: He walked through a door that a teacher left open
On the morning of the shooting, a teacher left a school door open, McCraw said on May 27.
“That back door was open. It wasn’t supposed to be open; it was supposed to be closed,” McCraw said three days after the shooting. “So that was an access point that the subject used.”
NOW: The teacher closed the door, but did not lock it
On May 31, Texas DPS spokesman Travis Considine told The Associated Press that a teacher opened the door but then closed it when she realized an attacker was on campus. But the door did not lock.
A DPS press secretary confirmed to Trends Wide that the AP report was accurate.
Did the attacker post his plans online?
A photo of two AR15-style rifles surfaced on an Instagram account linked to the alleged Uvalde shooter just three days before Tuesday’s massacre at Robb Elementary School. Trends Wide redacted part of the image to remove the name of a third party. (From Instagram)
BEFORE: Posted messages on Facebook
On May 25, Texas Governor Greg Abbott told reporters that the shooter shared his plans on Facebook about 30 minutes before the killing began.
Abbott said the attacker wrote the following three messages and described them as posts:
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“I’m going to shoot my grandmother.”
“I shot my grandmother.”
“I’m going to shoot up an elementary school.”
NOW: Sent private messages, did not post on Facebook
Shortly after Abbott’s comments, a spokesperson for Meta — Facebook’s parent company — said the posts were “private text messages one by one that were discovered after the terrible tragedy occurred” and were not public posts on Facebook.
On May 27, DPS Director McCraw told reporters he wanted to “correct something that was said early in the investigation: that he (the shooter) posted on Facebook, publicly, that he was going to shoot his grandmother and second, that he had shot her, and third, that he was going to shoot up a school. That didn’t happen.”
Hours later, Abbott said he was “furious” about being given the wrong information before speaking at the May 25 news conference.
“I wrote detailed handwritten notes about what everyone in that room told me in sequential order about what happened. And when I came out on this stage and told the audience what happened, it was a recitation of what people in that room told me, whether they were law enforcement officials or not, Abbott said.
“And as everyone has learned, the information I was given turned out to be partly inaccurate. And I’m absolutely furious about it.”
How long did it take the police to kill the attacker?
Students run to safety after escaping through a window at Robb Elementary School on Tuesday.
BEFORE: Less than an hour
On Wednesday, May 25, Texas DPS Director McCraw told Trends Wide the shooter was on the school grounds at most an hour before police entered the classroom he was in and killed him. .
“It would be 40 minutes or so, [hasta] an hour,” he told Trends Wide.
NOW: More than one hour
On May 27, McCraw said the shooter was on the school grounds for more than an hour.
McCraw said the attacker entered the school at 11:33 a.m. and was shot and killed by a Border Patrol tactical unit at 12:50 p.m.
In all, about 75 minutes had passed between the time the first law enforcement officers arrived at the school and Border Patrol tactical agents stormed the classroom and killed the shooter.
As the attacker remained in the classroom, increasingly frustrated parents waited outside the school, urging law enforcement to take further action.
Inside the classroom, terrified students called 911 for help, while as many as 19 officers stood in the hallway outside the classroom.
Why didn’t the police enter the classroom earlier?
Steven McCraw, director and colonel of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said the decision not to confront the attacker sooner was a mistake.
BEFORE: Suspect was “caught”
At a news conference on May 25, Texas DPS Director McCraw says officers confronted Ramos while he was in the classroom and “continued to pin him down in that room” as a team assembled. tactical to break into the classroom, implying that the decision to keep Ramos confined to a classroom was a strategic tactic.
He later noted that responding officers “saved other children” by choosing to keep the attacker “immobilized.”
But in an interview with Trends Wide, Lt. Chris Olivarez, another DPS spokesman, contradicted those statements. He told Trends Wide that officers were at a “disadvantage because the gunman was able to enter a classroom. [y] barricade yourself inside that classroom.”
NOW: It was “the wrong decision”
On May 27, McCraw said the classroom was not immediately searched because the incident commander thought the scene was a “barricaded subject situation,” not an active attacker situation. He said the incident commander, the Uvalde School District Police Chief, believed “there was time to retrieve the keys and wait for a tactical team with the team to come forward, break down the door and take care of the subject.”
McCraw criticized the decision not to break into the classroom earlier. “From the hindsight of where I’m sitting right now, of course it wasn’t the right decision,” he added. “It was the wrong call, period. There is no excuse for that.”
The tactical team eventually entered the room using keys from a concierge.
Is the school district police chief cooperating with state investigators?
The Uvalde School District Police Chief is Pedro “Pete” Arredondo.
BEFORE: Police chief did not respond to DPS interview request
Uvalde School District Police Chief Pedro “Pete” Arredondo — the incident commander in charge of police response during the shooting — did not respond to a request for a follow-up interview, the spokesman told Trends Wide on May 31. Texas DPS Travis Considine.
The follow-up interview would be with the Texas Rangers, an investigative branch of the DPS.
NOW: Arredondo says he is in contact with the authorities
“I am in contact with DPS every day,” Arredondo told Trends Wide on June 1.
The police chief declined to provide additional information, citing ongoing funerals for the victims.
“We are going to be respectful of the (families),” Arredondo said. “Whenever this is over and the families mourn, then we will, obviously.”
More than a week after the massacre, many questions remain unanswered
Authorities have not said whether 911 calls made by children inside classrooms were passed on to the incident commander while police waited outside.
It’s also unclear how many of the 21 victims who died would have survived if police had entered the classroom sooner.
The Texas Rangers are now investigating the killing and law enforcement response. The US Justice Department said it will also review law enforcement’s response to the deadly attack.
A Department of Justice spokesperson explained that the review is intended to “provide an independent account of law enforcement actions and responses that day, and identify lessons learned and best practices to help first responders prepare for and respond to active attacker events”.
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