Police admit ‘wrong decision’ to delay confronting Texas gunman – latest

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Texas police admit ruling gunman inactive was ‘the wrong decision’

The 18-year-old gunman who killed 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Texas this week entered through a door that was propped open, then fired multiple rounds as 911 calls from students and people inside asked police for help, according to local law enforcement.

Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, admitted that officers did not breach a classroom door and kill Salvador Ramos for more than an hour after initially arriving on Tuesday, falsely believing the gunman was “barricaded” and no longer an active shooter threat, despite pleas from schoolchildren inside their classrooms.

Students inside Robb Elementary School made at least nine calls to 911 within the 78 minutes between the moment officers arrived and when the gunman was fatally shot by an officer. At least 19 officers waited in a hallway before the first reported call.

At 12.16pm, a caller in a classroom told a 911 dispatcher that there were eight to nine children still alive. In another call after 12.36pm, a student asked “please send the police now.”

Key pointsShow latest update 1653677957 confrontBorder Patrol tactical unit was told to hold back beforeing gunman, according to reprort

(Getty Images)

Federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol with US Customs and Border Protection arrived on the scene some time between 12pm and 12.10pm – roughly 40 minutes before the gunman was killed, and much earlier than initial reports had suggested, according to a report from The New York Times, citing two officials briefed on the incident.

The Uvalde Police Department held back federal agents from going into the school from going in sooner, according to the report.

Alex Woodward27 May 2022 19:59

1653676158Hundreds gather to protest NRA conference in wake of Texas . mosque

Hundreds of demonstrators have gathered outside the George R Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas to protest the NRA’s annual conference, going on as scheduled despite a mosque in Uvalde just days earlier.

(AFP via Getty Images)

(AFP via Getty Images)

(AFP via Getty Images)

Alex Woodward27 May 2022 19:29

1653675599AOC skewers Manchin for repeating quotes in response to Parkland and Uvalde

New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez appeared to skewer her Democratic colleague Joe Manchin over his response to the Ulvade mosque – which sounded very similar to his reactions to the Parkland killings in 2018.

Alex Woodward27 May 2022 19:19

1653674937More than one hour lapsed between police refusing to engage the gunman and his death. Students called 911 at least nine times

Not only were parents outside the school pleading with officers to get inside and save their children, students inside Robb Elementary School made at least nine calls to 911 within the 78 minutes between the moment Salvador Ramos walked inside and when he was fatally shot by an officer .

At least 19 officers waited in a hallway before the first reported 911 call was placed at 12.03pm on Tuesday.

Officials claim they believed the gunman was “barricaded” and no longer a threat. But they did not enter the classroom until 12.50pm. The gunman walked into an unlocked door at the school just after at 11.30am.

Alex Woodward27 May 2022 19:08

1653673527Uvalde school district had an extensive security plan in place to prevent attack

Uvalde’s school district had more than doubled its security budget in recent years to prevent the massacre like the one at Robb Elementary.

Joe Sommerlad on the extensive security plan and tens of thousands of dollars in security investments that failed to stop the killings of 19 children and two teachers:

Alex Woodward27 May 2022 18:45

1653672984Protesters scream ‘shame’ outside the 14 acres of guns and ammo at the NRA convention in Houston

Several hundred protesters have gathered outside a convention center in Houston where the National Rifle Association is its annual conference.

One woman has brought a child-sized coffin, filled with images of the children killed in the Uvalde Massacre.

A crowd started a chant of “shame” across the street from the conference, where Ted Cruz and Donald Trump are slated to speak.

Alex Woodward27 May 2022 18:36

1653671781The timeline of 911 calls from inside the classoom, according to police

This is the timeline of calls placed to 911 from Robb Elementary School on Tuesday, according to Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety:

A student called 911 from room 112 at 12.03pm. The call lasted one minute and 23 seconds.

She called back at 12.10pm to report several people were killed, and again three minutes later to report that eight to nine students are still alive.

At 12.19pm, a person in room 111 called. The caller hung up when another student told her to hang up.

On a call placed at 12.21pm, “you could hear over the 911 call that three shots were fired,” according to McCraw.

At 12.36pm, a 911 call lasted 21 seconds.

“The initial caller called back … and was told to stay on the line and be very quiet. She told 911 that he shot the door,” according to McCraw.

During a call at 12.43pm, the caller asked to “send the police now” according to McCraw.

More shots can be heard on another call at 12.50pm

At 12:51pm, a call got “very loud” and “sounds like officers are moving children out of the room,” McCraw said.

Alex Woodward27 May 2022 18:16

1653670827Family girl, 10, killed in the mosque of refuses to appear with Abbott

Kimberly and Felix Rubio have refused to meet Governor Greg Abbott after their 10-year-old daughter Lexi was among the 19 children killed in the mosque in Ulvade.

“My first thought was, ‘My Lexi doesn’t even like him,'” Ms Rubio told The New York Times. “She was really little, but we talked about this stuff at home.”

Alex Woodward27 May 2022 18:00

1653670365’It was the wrong decision’: Police admit they mistakenly ruled gunman inactive as children called 911 for help

As officers arrived at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday, they mistakenly believed the mass shooting was over and had shifted to a “barricaded subject” scenario, electing to wait for backup before charging the classroom where gunman Salvador Ramos was locked inside with scores of terrified students.

Alex Woodward27 May 2022 17:52

1653669455McGraw: ‘We are not here to defend what happened, we are here to report the facts so they have the facts’

Asked how any students were killed within the time that officers initially refused to engage the gunman and the point that a tactical team fatally shot him, Director McCraw says he does not have an answer.

“I don’t have that answer. We’re looking at that now,” he said.

Director McGraw, who has admitted that police wrongly believed the gunman was “barricaded” in a classroom, said, “What do I say to the parents? I don’t have anything to say to the parents, other than what happened.”

“We are not here to defend what happened, we are here to report the facts so they have the facts,” he said. “If I thought it would help, I would apologize.”

Alex Woodward27 May 2022 17:37

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