Teachers and students who called 911 during the Uvalde shooting were repeatedly told to wait: NPR
Investigators search for evidence outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, May 25, 2022, after an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 students and two teachers. Four months after the Robb Elementary School shooting, the Uvalde School District on Friday, October 7th pulled the entire police force present on its campus from work.
Jae C. Hong / AP
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Jae C. Hong / AP
Investigators search for evidence outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, May 25, 2022, after an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 students and two teachers. Four months after the Robb Elementary School shooting, the Uvalde School District on Friday, October 7th pulled the entire police force present on its campus from work.
Jae C. Hong / AP
Chilling recordings have come from children and teachers trapped inside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, during the mass shooting there in May. The recordings reveal a new level of detail about law enforcement’s failure to respond quickly, and paint the picture of an increasingly desperate and terrifying scene unfolding with an active shooter. motion. The story was first reported by CNN, The Texas Tribuneand ProPublica.
Reports show that the first calls that day came at 11:29 a.m. On the third call a few minutes later, a panicked caller shouted “He’s in the range shooting at kids!”
At 12:10, a young girl begged: “I’m in class 112. Please hurry up. There are a lot of dead bodies.”
The caller was student Khloie Torres. She was only 10 years old then. It will take 40 minutes from her first call until law enforcement forces them into her classroom.
Nineteen children and two teachers were killed in the shooting.
According to the report, the newly emerged recordings include more than 20 calls, including calls between officers and dispatchers, and show a chaotic response with no apparent communication. At least once a dispatcher provided false information to an employee.
Since the shooting happened, law enforcement’s response has been widely criticized, with agencies not taking responsibility and blaming each other. Several top officials have been fired.
Nearly 400 law enforcement officers from more than two dozen agencies gathered at the scene that day. The recordings reflect the growing awareness among team members that the response was unsuccessful. More than one officer soon learned that the gunman was still in the classroom with the student.
“We took too long,” said one medic, according to reports. It was minutes before Khloie Torres started her third 911 call. She survived the shooting.
An investigation by the Texas legislative committee found that law enforcement radio signals were jammed inside the school building. Former Uvalde School Sheriff Pete Arredondo, who was fired, left his radio at the school fence, stated report.
Arredondo handled the incident as one of the barricaded subjects rather than an active gunman, according to the report.
“With hindsight, we now know that this was a terrible, tragic mistake,” the committee wrote.
Officers said they knew the gunman was in one of the rooms, but did not know what was going on behind closed doors because they heard no screams or cries, despite hearing multiple gunshots. up.
Officers remained unintrusive in the classroom after an officer’s wife, a fourth grade school teacher, was shot, and called her husband to say she was “going to die”.
Many people incorrectly answered that Arredondo was in class with the shooter, even though Arredondo did not have his radio.
He admitted there was a victim at 12:20 p.m., saying on body camera footage of another officer, “We have victims in there. I don’t want any more. You know what I’m talking about.” What?”
