JULY 2022. Blues Vol 38 No. 7

AROUND THE COUNTRY
FACTS COME OUT
DPS chief says officers in Uvalde could have taken down
gunman within 3 minutes had commander not hesitated.
The following report from the
Texas Tribune, recounts what
actually happened in Uvalde when
19 kids and 2 teachers were killed.
Unlike most of the mainstream
media, The Tribune’s contains actual
facts not speculation.
By Terri langford
UVALDE, TX. —The officers in
the hallway of Robb Elementary
wanted to get inside classrooms
111 and 112 — immediately. One
officer’s daughter was inside.
Another officer had gotten a call
from his wife, a teacher, who told
him she was bleeding to death.
Two closed doors and a wall
stood between them and an
18-year-old with an AR-15 who
had opened fire on children and
teachers inside the connected
classrooms. A Halligan bar — an
ax-like forcible-entry tool used
by firefighters to get through
locked doors — was available.
Ballistic shields were arriving
on the scene. So was plenty of
firepower, including at least two
rifles. Some officers were itching
to move.
One such officer, a special
agent at the Texas Department of
Public Safety, had arrived around
20 minutes after the shooting
started. He immediately asked:
Are there still kids in the classrooms?
“If there is, then they just need
to go in,” the agent said.
Another officer answered, “It is
unknown at this time.”
The agent shot back, “Y’all don’t
know if there’s kids in there?” He
added, “If there’s kids in there we
need to go in there.”
“Whoever is in charge will determine
that,” came the reply.
The inaction appeared too
much for the special agent. He
noted that there were still children
in other classrooms within
the school who needed to be
evacuated.
“Well, there’s kids over here,”
he said. “So, I’m getting kids out.”
The exchange happened early
in the excruciating 77 minutes on
May 24 that started when Salvador
Ramos, who had just shot his
grandmother in the face, walked
through an unlocked door of
Robb Elementary, encountering
no interference as he wielded an
AR-15 he had bought eight days
earlier. At the end of those 77
minutes, 19 students, including
the daughter of one of the officers
stationed in the hallway, and
two teachers were dead or dying.
Others sustained serious physical
injuries; the emotional and
psychological ones will last for
life. It was the deadliest school
shooting in Texas history.
But during most of those 77
minutes, despite the urgent
pleas from officers and parents
amassed outside, officers stayed
put outside rooms 111 and 112,
stationed on either end of a wide
hallway with sky blue and green
walls and bulletin boards displaying
children’s artwork. Ramos
fired at least four sets of rounds
— including the initial spray of
fire that likely killed many of his
victims instantaneously.
After the special agent’s comment,
nearly another hour passed
before a tactical team from the
Border Patrol breached the classroom
doors and killed the gunman.
In the weeks since the tragedy
in Uvalde, questions have swirled
around the actions of police and
whether some lives could have
been saved if officers confronted
the barricaded gunman sooner.
Authorities have shared conflict-
16 The BLUES The BLUES 17