According to news reports, a top Texas security official said on Friday that students locked inside an elementary school classroom repeatedly dialed 911 while authorities waited more than an hour to break down the door after pursuing the gunman into the building.
At a news conference, Texas Department of Public Safety Commissioner Steven McCraw said the commander on the scene in Uvalde believed the gunman, Salvador Ramos, was trapped inside adjoining classrooms alone, with no survivors.
One of the 911 calls made from within the classrooms was from a child pleading for help while police were delayed. According to investigators, a child pleaded, “Please send the cops now.”
The news came after three days of contradictory and imprecise information from authorities about the delay in police response, which lasted more than an hour from the moment Ramos entered the school to the time US Border Patrol agents unlocked the classroom door and killed him. However, not before the 18-year-old gunman slaughtered 19 youngsters and two instructors.
At a press conference, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw choked back tears as he said, “Of course that wasn’t the right decision.” “It was a wrong decision.” Period.”
There were “enough of cops to do whatever needed to be done” with 19 officers, according to McCraw. The team needed more equipment and cops to enter the classroom where the gunman was holed up, according to the commander inside, Pete Arredondo, the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District chief of police. He said the crew waited for a full US Border Patrol tactical unit to arrive before moving to take out the gunman.
