Texas shooter entered faculty by ‘unlocked door’, police reached after quarter-hour | Timeline

On Wednesday, an 18-year-old Salvador Ramos gunned down 19 kids and two adults at an elementary faculty in Texas. The capturing provides to the lengthy listing of mass shootings within the US. The incident has raised questions on American gun legal guidelines. New particulars which emerged from the timeline of the assault have raised questions on security and safety preparations outdoors the varsity and the response of the police.

On Thursday, authorities largely ignored questions on why officers had not been in a position to cease the shooter sooner, with Victor Escalon, regional director for the Texas Department of Public Safety, telling reporters he had “taken all those questions into consideration” and would provide updates later.

After capturing his grandma, the gunman crashed his truck in a ditch outdoors the varsity at 11:28 am. He exited the truck together with his rifle and shot at two folks throughout the road, Escalon mentioned.The gunman subsequent approached the varsity and shot on the constructing a number of instances earlier than strolling in by an ‘apparently unlocked door’. The former principal of the varsity instructed CNN that the door would usually be stored locked “unless you are leaving to go home on the school bus”.Escalon mentioned the gunman was not confronted by the varsity useful resource officer outdoors the constructing. However, the company had beforehand mentioned an officer had ‘engaged’ the shooter. “He walked in unobstructed initially,” Escalon mentioned. However, as per the newest info, there was no armed officer available.The gunman then walked right into a classroom and fired greater than 25 rounds. Escalon mentioned a lot of the firing was originally of the assault.After greater than quarter-hour, at 11:44 am, the officers arrived and went to confront the gunman. “They called for more resources and personnel, evacuated students and teachers in other parts of the school, and at some point entered “negotiations” with the suspect, he said,” he added. After that, a US Border Patrol tactical crew entered the classroom and fatally shot the suspect after an hour.The disaster got here to an finish after a gaggle of Border Patrol tactical officers entered the varsity roughly an hour later, at 12:45 p.m., mentioned Texas Department of Public Safety spokesperson Travis Considine. They engaged in a shootout with the gunman, who was holed up within the fourth-grade classroom. Moments earlier than 1 p.m., he was lifeless.Earlier, the state media reported that the Uvalde faculty district had a “safety plan that included its own police force, social media monitoring and a threat reporting system to provide a safe and secure environment for students”.

The web site of the district listed 21 completely different measures that it claimed to have undertaken for the protection of the varsity group, which included an app for reporting bullying and bodily safety measures, like fencing and a buzz-in door system. Now, questions are being raised in regards to the planning.

Read: Our children our residing in concern. What are we doing?: US senator’s fiery speech after Texas capturing | Watch

Ken Trump, president of the consulting agency National School Safety and Security Services, mentioned the size of the timeline raised questions.

“Based on best practices, it’s tough to understand why there were any types of delays, particularly when you get into reports of 40 minutes and up of going in to neutralize that shooter,” he mentioned.

Many different particulars of the case and the response stay murky. The motive for the bloodbath — the nation’s deadliest faculty capturing since Newtown, Connecticut, virtually a decade in the past — remained underneath investigation, with authorities saying Ramos had no identified felony or psychological well being historical past.

During the siege, pissed off onlookers urged law enforcement officials to cost into the varsity, in line with witnesses.

“Go in there! Go in there!” ladies shouted on the officers quickly after the assault started, mentioned Juan Carranza, 24, who watched the scene from outdoors a home throughout the road.

Carranza mentioned the officers ought to have entered the varsity sooner: “There were more of them. There was just one of him.”

Defending the officers, Uvalde Police Chief Daniel Rodriguez issued an announcement saying two responding officers have been shot by the suspect however are anticipated to outlive. “It is important for our community to know that our officers responded within minutes,” he mentioned.

A spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) mentioned that officers didn’t have sufficient info on the precise location of the shooter to do a direct takedown.