May 26, 2022, 11:10am
As police investigate the events leading up to the attack at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, that left 21 dead and 17 injured, details are emerging about the police response at the scene that caused some parents to plead with officers to go inside the school to save their children.
There is a makeshift memorial for the Robb Elementary School shooting victims. The photo was taken by Chan Khan.
The Texas Department of Public Safety said Uvalde Police received reports of a crashed vehicle and a man with a backpack, some form of body armor and armed with a rifle.
Juan Carranza, who lives across the street from Robb Elementary, told the Associated Press he saw Ramos crash his truck into a ditch outside of the school, grab a rifle and shoot at two people outside of a nearby funeral home.
The Texas director of public safety, Steve McCraw, said during a press conference that the school security officer did not exchange gunfire with the 18-year-old after hearing reports of the crashed vehicle.
The school officer followed Ramos inside, where rounds were exchanged.
According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, Ramos fired shots from inside the school towards the Uvalde police officers outside, causing injuries to some of them.
A tactical police unit eventually entered the room and killed Ramos after he barricaded himself inside a classroom and killed 19 students and two teachers.
When asked during a press conference Wednesday how much time passed between the shooter arriving at the school and the tactical team shooting him, he said he did not want to give a specific time frame.
Uvalde Police asked people to avoid the area of the school due to a large police presence when the school announced it was going on lock down.
The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District posted on its social media accounts that there was an active shooter at the school.
The Uvalde Police Department wrote in an update on Facebook that the shooter was in police custody almost two hours after the first calls came in.
Video footage shared on social media appeared to show desperate parents screaming and arguing with officers outside the school to go inside, while one video appears to show an officer on top of an adult. The father of a fourth-grade girl who was killed in the school shooting said he wanted to charge into the school with other people. They were not prepared.
It is not clear how long it took for the tactical unit to arrive on the scene. The number of people in the classroom where Ramos opened fire has not been confirmed.
Just days after his 18th birthday, Ramos legally purchased two rifles and more than 300 rounds of bullets. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said that before the rampage began, Ramos sent three messages on Facebook saying he was going to kill his grandmother. The third message said he was going to shoot an elementary school. Ramos' grandmother is in a critical condition at an area hospital.
Here is what we know about the victims of the Texas school shooting.
BidenUrges Americans to Stand Up To Gun Industry as 19 Children Killed In Texas Elementary School
All Rights Reserved © 2024
