As the public rages over the amount of time it took for officers to confront the shooter at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, Texas authorities have faced mounting criticism for offering conflicting reports.
Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw spoke at a press conference. The photo was taken by Chan Khan.
The director of the Texas Department of Public Safety said at a press conference last week that the report was not accurate.
The school resource officer was not at the school at the time of the shooting, but he was one of the first officers on the scene, and officials have not explained why.
The first three officers entered the school minutes after Ramos, but he had already locked himself in one of the classrooms.
In an interview with the Today show, the Texas Department of Public Safety lieutenant said officers responded "without hesitation" and tried to get into the school.
Texas officials said on Tuesday that the teacher had closed the door before the shooting, but the door did not lock as it should have, according to a report.
Don Flanery, a lawyer for the teacher, told the San Antonio Express-News that his client had propped the door open with a rock and called the police when she saw Ramos walking toward the school.
The shooter was inside the school within five minutes after he crashed his truck into a ditch, according to a new version of the story.
The Uvalde Police initially said that Ramos was in police custody, but later said that he had been killed by the Border Patrol.
The incident commander, Uvalde school police chief Pete Arredondo, did not consider the school an active shooter situation even though children and teachers from inside called for help. As there were 19 officers in the hallway of the school, the first call came from inside at 12:03 p.m., 30 minutes after Ramos entered the school. The caller said there were many students still alive. Arredondo did not have his radio with him and the calls from inside the school were not being shared with him, according to the Texas state senator. If law enforcement had not waited for tactical units to arrive before breaching the door of the classrooms, some students might have been saved.
78 minutes. That's how long it took for law enforcement to break into the classroom after Ramos entered it. The Border Patrol unit entered the classroom at 12:50 p.m. using keys obtained from the janitor. There was a lot going on and it was a complex situation, which is why authorities didn't engage the shooter earlier.
The governor of Texas said he was misled when he heard about the police response on May 27. The information I was given turned out to be incorrect. I am angry about that.
Last week, just days after his 18th birthday, Ramos legally purchased two rifles and hundreds of rounds of bullets and shot his grandmother in the face before driving to the school. Police have faced intense criticism for allowing Ramos to be inside the school for nearly 80 minutes, a decision that appears to clash with normal active-shooter tactics. Some parents were pinned down and arrested for interfering with the police investigation after they tried to get tactical units to rescue their children.
The teacher closed the door before the shooting.
The Texas official said that the wrong decision wasn't to quickly attack the classroom where the shooter was barricaded.
There was a police response to the shooting that left 19 children dead.
A student led the police to the scene of the shooting as they waited for tactical units to arrive.
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