Students trapped in a classroom with the gunman repeatedly called 911 during this week’s attack on a Texas elementary school as nearly 20 officers waited in the hallway for more than 45 minutes, authorities said Friday, according to the Associated Press.
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 that children were no longer at risk, said Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, at a contentious news conference.
“It was the wrong decision,” he said.
At Friday’s news conference, McCraw also offered a new timeline of the shooting after law enforcement officials backtracked on previous statements about police response to the mass shooting.
11:27 a.m. — Video footage shows a teacher at Robb Elementary propping open an exterior door. Ramos reportedly entered through this door.
11:28 a.m. — Ramos’ vehicle crashes near the school. A teacher ran back to a classroom to get a phone and came back to the door, allowing it to remain open. Two men, at a nearby funeral home, made their way to the crash scene where they saw Ramos exit the vehicle from the passenger side with a gun and backpack. The witnesses reportedly began running and Ramos tried shooting at them.
11:30 a.m. — 911 receives a phone call that there was a man who crashed his vehicle and has a gun.
11:31 a.m. — Ramos “reaches the last row of vehicles in the school parking lot,” McCraw said. The 18-year-old began shooting at the school, while police responded to the funeral home. McCraw adds that previous statements that officers confronted Ramos were inaccurate, and that an officer who heard the 911 call “drove immediately to the area he thought was the man with the gun, to the back of the school, which turned out to be a teacher.” McCraw said the officer drove by the suspect, who was “hunkered down behind a vehicle.”
11:32 a.m. — Ramos fires multiple shots at the school from outside, then enters the building.
11:33 a.m. — Ramos begins shooting in a classroom. McCraw says audio evidence from video footage shows Ramos shooting over 100 rounds.
11:35 a.m. — Three officers enter the school through the same doors that Ramos reportedly entered. Later, four more officers joined. The initial three officers were shot at, and some were grazed by bullets. Ramos shut the door to the classroom.
11:37 a.m. — Over 16 rounds are fired.
11:51 a.m. — More police begin to arrive.
12:03 p.m. — As many as 19 police officers were in the hallway outside the classroom. McCraw said they believed the active shooter situation had transitioned into a barricaded person call. A female caller dialed 911 from the classroom. The length of the call was less than 90 seconds. She said her name and said she was in classroom 112.
12:10 p.m. — The caller tells 911 that multiple people were dead.
12:13 p.m. — The female calls 911 again.
12:15 p.m. — More technicians arrive with shields.
12:16 p.m. — Female calls 911 again, adding that eight to nine students are still alive.
12:19 p.m. — Another person, in room 111 called 911. “She hung up when another student told her to hang up,” McCraw said.
12:21 p.m. — Suspect fires more shots at the door. Law enforcement moved down the hallway. A 911 call also captured three shots being fired.
12:36 p.m. — Another 911 call lasted for 21 seconds. The caller, a student, stayed on the line quietly. “She told 911 that he shot the door,” McCraw said, adding that the student asked 911 to “please send the police now.”
12:46 p.m. — Student tells 911 she can hear police next door.
12:50 p.m. — Officers breach the door using keys obtained from a janitor and kill the suspect.
12:51 p.m. — The 911 call was “loud” and “sounded like officers were moving children out of the room,” McCraw said.
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