The First Image of Police Inside Uvalde School Has Been Released, Immediately Ignites Even More Anger
New information on the May mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, includes an image of police armed with rifles and a ballistic shield outside the classroom in which children were being shot — and on the scene within 20 minutes of the beginning of the massacre.
Nineteen children and two adults were killed in the attack on Robb Elementary School.
According to information first published by the Austin American-Statesman and then by USA Today, based upon new documents that have put together a timeline of the case, gunman Salvador Ramos could be heard firing his rifle inside the classroom for 29 minutes before Border Patrol agents entered the room and killed him.
It was the first time the interior image from the school has been released, KVUE-TV reported.
Many reacted angrily on social media, and #UvaldeCoverUp was trending on Twitter after the new revelation.
Investigators believe this is significant because it indicates they had more than enough firepower and protection to enter the classroom before they did. Officers were growing impatient far sooner: “If there’s kids in there we need to go in there,” one said on body camera video.
— Tony Plohetski (@tplohetski) June 20, 2022
Multiple officers
Automatic rifles
Ballistic shields
Training for this exact situation days ago!No Balls
No Courage! as the #UvaldeCoverUp stood down for FIFTY-EIGHT MINUTES! pic.twitter.com/sRETVrTTRF— Luke Rudkowski (@Lukewearechange) June 21, 2022
19 armed cops against one gunman in #Uvalde
And what did they do? They did nothing.
For more than an hour.
…While kids were shot.
…While kids who were already shot bled to death.
…While kids called 911 and begged for help.
HELP EXPOSE THE #UvaldeCoverUp !! pic.twitter.com/zcFwde28wy
— Don Winslow (@donwinslow) June 21, 2022
The timeline that investigators have developed runs from the start of the incident at 11:33 a.m. when Ramos entered the school and ends at 12:50 p.m. when Border Patrol agents killed him.
The timeline says that within three minutes of Ramos entering the school, 11 officers had done so as well. At 11:40. Pete Arredondo, chief of the Uvalde school district police force, called the Uvalde Police Department via a landline.
“It’s an emergency right now,” he said, according to USA Today. “We have him in the room. He’s got an AR-15. He’s shot a lot . . . They need to be outside the building prepared because we don’t have firepower right now. It’s all pistols.
“I don’t have a radio. I need you to bring a radio for me.”
This image tells so much of the story.
Protocol calls for police to advance to neutralize the gunman. Instead we see them taking cover. This about 20 minutes after the gunman enters the school — which is already way past the time police should have moved in. @tplohetski pic.twitter.com/dOs85XdqiR— Shimon Prokupecz (@ShimonPro) June 21, 2022
BREAKING: First interior photo of the Uvalde school has been released.
Officers are seen at 11:52am with rifles and ballistic shield. The shooter remained inside alive until 12:50pm pic.twitter.com/p2uM604i0o
— Jack Posobiec ?? (@JackPosobiec) June 20, 2022
According to USA Today, body camera footage indicates shots were heard four minutes after that conversation. At 11:52, an officer with a ballistic shield arrived.
“If there’s kids in there, we need to go in there,” one officer said, according to USA Today. Another responded: “Whoever is in charge will determine that.”
Body camera footage showed that during that time, Arredondo was trying to find keys to open the classroom. According to a new report, new report the door to the classroom where the killings took place not even have been locked.
The timeline showed that by 12:05 p.m., two more officers with ballistic shields had arrived, according to USA Today.
At about 12:20 p.m., according to the USA Today timeline, Arredondo asked about “popping [the gunman] through the window? Get two shooters on either side of the window? I say we breach those windows and shoot his [expletive] head off through the windows.”
Reporters were asked to leave Uvalde City Hall because people are intimidated by us. Texas legislators are meeting here with law enforcement behind closed doors. The fire marshal also told a local chaplain and father of a victim to exit from the building. pic.twitter.com/ukyTmtHbOt
— Shimon Prokupecz (@ShimonPro) June 20, 2022
The timeline showed that at 12:46 Arredondo gave the federal agents the OK to enter the classroom. According to a May 27 timeline published by the Texas Tribune, an online news outlet, Ramos was killed at 12:50 p.m.
Texas legislators have begun hearings into the shooting, but have so far held most of their sessions behind closed doors.
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