As kids called, police waited; Texas chief says choice wrong one

Relatives grieve for Alexandria Aniyah Rubio, 10, a victim of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School, at a memorial in the town square in Uvalde, Texas, early Friday. More photos at arkansasonline.com/528uvalde/.
(The New York Times/Ivan Pierre Aguirre)
Relatives grieve for Alexandria Aniyah Rubio, 10, a victim of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School, at a memorial in the town square in Uvalde, Texas, early Friday. More photos at arkansasonline.com/528uvalde/. (The New York Times/Ivan Pierre Aguirre)

UVALDE, Texas -- Students trapped inside a classroom with a gunman repeatedly called 911 during this week's attack on a Texas elementary school, including one who pleaded, "Please send the police now," as officers waited in the hallway for more than 45 minutes, authorities said Friday.

The commander at the scene in Uvalde -- the school district's police chief -- believed that 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos was barricaded inside adjoining classrooms at Robb Elementary School and children were no longer at risk, Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said at a news conference.

"It was the wrong decision," he said.

Friday's briefing came after authorities spent three days providing often conflicting and incomplete information about the 90 minutes that elapsed between the time Ramos entered the school and when U.S. Border Patrol agents unlocked the classroom door and killed him.

When the border agents were set to enter the room, there were as many as 19 officers in the hallway outside, McCraw said.

Ramos killed 19 children and two teachers inside the room. His motive remained unclear, authorities said.

There was a barrage of gunfire shortly after Ramos entered the classroom where officers eventually killed him, but those shots were "sporadic" for much of the 48 minutes that officers waited in the hallway, McCraw said. He said investigators do not know if children died during that time.

Throughout the attack, teachers and children repeatedly called 911 asking for help, including the girl who pleaded for the police, McCraw said.

Questions have mounted over the amount of time it took officers to enter the school to confront the gunman.

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.

According to the new timeline provided by McCraw, after crashing his truck, Ramos fired at two people coming out of a nearby funeral home, officials said.

Contrary to earlier statements by officials, a school district police officer was not inside the school when Ramos arrived. 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.

At 11:33 a.m., Ramos entered the school through a rear door that had been propped open and fired more than 100 rounds into a pair of classrooms, McCraw said. He did not address why the door was propped open.

Two minutes later, three local police officers arrived and entered the building through the same door, followed soon after by four others, McCraw said. Within 15 minutes, as many as 19 officers from different agencies had assembled in the hallway, taking sporadic fire from Ramos, who was holed up in a classroom.

The first 911 call came in at 12:03 p.m. Tuesday, roughly a half-hour after the shooting began, McCraw said.

A female student identified herself and told the dispatcher what room she was in. She called back several times again over the next 13 minutes, offering officials information indicating that there were multiple people dead.

Ramos was still inside at 12:10 p.m. when the first U.S. Marshals Service deputies arrived. They had raced to the school from nearly 70 miles away in the border town of Del Rio, the agency said in a tweet Friday.

But the commander inside the building -- the school district's police chief, Pete Arredondo -- decided the group should wait to confront the gunman, on the belief that the scene was no longer an active attack, McCraw said.

"At 12:16, she called back and said there was eight to nine students alive," he said.

A second call placed by a student in an adjoining classroom came in at 12:19 p.m. By that time, according to the timeline authorities offered Friday, a specialized Border Patrol tactical unit had already arrived at the school.

"She hung up when another student told her to hang up," McCraw told reporters.

Another call came in three minutes later. On this one, he said, the sound of three gunshots can be heard.

By 12:36 p.m., the initial caller dialed 911 again. The student was told to "stay on the line and to be very quiet," McCraw said. The student reportedly told the dispatcher that "he shot the door" and hung up after 21 seconds.

At 12:47 p.m., the child called to plead: "Please send the police now."

McCraw paused.

The crisis came to an end at 12:50 after officers used keys from a janitor to open the classroom door, entered the room and shot and killed Ramos, he said.

"At 12:51, it's very loud and it sounds like officers are moving children out of the room," he said. "By that time, the first child was out before the call cuts off."

It was not until 12:58 p.m. that law enforcement radio chatter said Ramos had been killed and the siege was over.

MOUNTING ANGER

What happened in those 90 minutes, in a working-class neighborhood near the edge of the town of Uvalde, has fueled mounting public anger and scrutiny over law enforcement's response to Tuesday's rampage.

Agustina Cazares, whose grandson and great-granddaughter, both 8 years old, attend the school and survived, said she is livid that police did not move faster. She has been watching Univision nonstop since Tuesday to stay abreast of the response from local police and the Texas public safety agency.

"The time they took to take action is unacceptable," Agustina Cazares said. "It was only thanks to God that my family was saved."

At least one of the 911 calls made by the children is believed to have been from 11-year-old Miah Cerrillo, who survived the shooting after witnessing her teacher, Eva Mirales, being shot to death.

Her father, Miguel Cerrillo, told The Washington Post that after Mirales was shot and her phone slipped from her hand, Miah grabbed it and called 911.

Once outside the school, Miah's parents said they panicked after seeing their daughter covered in blood.

Miah told them: "I'm OK. It's not my blood."

One of her classmates was shot and bleeding, Miah told her father. She decided to lie on top of her so the gunman would think they were both dead.

Arredondo could not immediately be reached for comment Friday. No one answered the door at his home, and he did not reply to a phone message left at the district's police headquarters.

Gov. Greg Abbott, who at a Wednesday news conference lauded the police response, said Friday that he was "misled," and he's "livid."

In his earlier statements, the governor told reporters, he was repeating what he had been told.

"The information that I was given turned out, in part, to be inaccurate," he said.

Abbott said exactly what happened needs to be "thoroughly, exhaustively" investigated. He previously praised law enforcement for their "amazing courage by running toward gunfire" and their "quick response."

Ken Trump, president of the consulting firm National School Safety and Security Services, said the length of the timeline raised questions.

"Based on best practices, it's very difficult to understand why there were any types of delays, particularly when you get into reports of 40 minutes and up of going in to neutralize that shooter," he said.

The motive for the massacre remained under investigation. Authorities have said Ramos had no known criminal or mental health history.

By Friday enough was known to leave many parents struggling with dread.

Visiting a downtown memorial to those killed, Kassandra Johnson of the nearby community of Hondo said she was so worried the day after the attack that she kept her twin boys home from school.

Before she sent the 8-year-olds back, she studied the school building, figuring out which windows she would need to break to reach them. 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.

"Those kids could be my kids," she said.

NATIONAL GUIDELINES

During an active shooting situation, American law enforcement officers are taught that their response should focus on two principles: first "stop the killing" and then "stop the dying," according to a training program based in Texas that is considered the national standard. The response should center on neutralizing the gunman, the program says, and then on getting medical aid to anyone who has been injured.

Officers are taught to enter quickly in small formations -- or even with one or two officers -- and act to contain and neutralize any gunman.

"DO NOT waste valuable time searching areas where you know there is no violence occurring," officers are told in a training bulletin from the Louisville Metro Police Department in Kentucky. "Go straight to the source of the violence."

Rescues, the thinking goes, should begin after the gunman is stopped or if there are additional officers to carry them out.

If the gunfire stops, the situation may change to a barricade or hostage scenario, which calls for a different, slower approach, experts say. The priority becomes making contact with the aggressor and starting negotiations.

Although hostage situations can require complex judgment calls -- particularly if trapped victims are wounded and need treatment -- law enforcement experts say negotiating has repeatedly saved lives.

Experts said that situations often are fluid and may transition repeatedly from an active shooting scenario to a hostage situation. That distinction appeared to be at issue in the questions emerging about the police handling of the shootings in Uvalde.

The best practices for such shootings have evolved considerably since the Columbine High School shooting in 1999, when officers were trained to maintain a perimeter and wait for a tactical team.

"Columbine changed everything because they realized that although it was not a bad plan to wait, people will get killed while you're waiting," said Robert J. Louden, a professor emeritus of criminal justice and homeland security at Georgian Court University in New Jersey.

Ashley Heiberger, a retired police captain who now does officer trainings, said that departments vary widely on what they require of officers in dangerous situations. Some expect them to head toward gunfire, while others give more discretion.

"Most agency policy likely does not require you to go on a suicide mission," he said. "But I would think that most officers would feel a moral obligation -- protecting lives is your highest duty."

Information for this article was contributed by Jim Vertuno, Elliot Spagat, Claire Galofaro, Jake Bleiberg and Mike Balsamo of The Associated Press, by Jesus Jimenez and Shaila Dewan of The New York Times and by Teo Armus, Timothy Bella and Kim Bellware of The Washington Post.

  photo  Mario Games, right, and his wife, Marisela and daughter Emily, react as they stand in front of a cross with the name of their niece, Nevaeh Bravo, at a memorial site for the victims killed in this week's elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Thursday, May 26, 2022. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)
 
 
  photo  Prianna Ayala weeps as she is embraced at a memorial site for the victims killed in this week's elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Thursday, May 26, 2022. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)
 
 
  photo  Children pay their respects at a memorial site for the victims killed in this week's elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Thursday, May 26, 2022. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)
 
 
  photo  Candles are lit at dawn at a memorial site in the town square for the victims killed in this week's elementary school shooting on Friday, May 27, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
 
 
  photo  A child leaves flowers at a memorial site for the victims killed in this week's elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Thursday, May 26, 2022. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)
 
 
  photo  People gather at a memorial site to pay their respects for the victims killed in this week's elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Thursday, May 26, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
 
 
  photo  Lights illuminate a cross made of flowers at a memorial site in the town square for the victims killed in this week's elementary school shooting on Friday, May 27, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
 
 
  photo  Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw speaks during a press conference held outside Robb Elementary School on Friday, May 27, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas. Nearly 20 officers stood in a hallway outside of the classrooms during this week's attack on a Texas elementary school for more than 45 minutes before agents used a master key to open a door and confront a gunman, authorities said Friday. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
 
 


  photo  Vincent Salazar (right), father of Layla Salazar, weeps Friday in front of a cross with his daughter’s name Friday in Uvalde, Texas, at a memorial site for the victims killed in this week’s elementary school shooting. (AP/Dario Lopez-Mills)
 
 



 Gallery: Scenes from Uvalde, Texas, day 4



Upcoming Events