By JAKE BLEIBERG, JIM VERTUNO and ELLIOT SPAGAT
UVALDE, Texas (AP) — Law enforcement authorities confronted questions and criticism Thursday over how a lot time elapsed earlier than they stormed an Uvalde elementary college classroom and put a cease to the rampage by a gunman who killed 19 youngsters and two academics.
Investigators had been additionally unable to say with any certainty whether or not an armed college district safety officer outdoors Robb Elementary exchanged hearth with the attacker, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, when Ramos first arrived on Tuesday.
The motive for the rampage — the nation’s deadliest college taking pictures since Newtown, Connecticut, a decade in the past — remained below investigation, with authorities saying Ramos had no identified prison or psychological well being historical past.
During the siege, which ended when a Border Patrol crew burst in and shot Ramos to demise, annoyed onlookers urged cops 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, stated Juan Carranza, 24, who watched the scene from outdoors his home, throughout the road from the varsity.
Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw stated Wednesday that 40 minutes to an hour elapsed from when Ramos opened hearth on the varsity safety officer to when the tactical crew shot him.
“The bottom line is law enforcement was there,” McCraw stated. “They did engage immediately. They did contain (Ramos) in the classroom.”
But a division spokesman stated later that authorities couldn’t give a strong estimate of how lengthy the gunman was within the college.
A regulation enforcement official stated the Border Patrol brokers had hassle breaching the classroom door and needed to get a workers member to open the room with a key. The official spoke on the situation of anonymity as a result of he was not licensed to speak publicly in regards to the investigation.
Javier Cazares, whose fourth grade daughter, Jacklyn Cazares, was killed within the assault, stated he raced to the varsity when he heard in regards to the taking pictures, arriving whereas police had been nonetheless gathered outdoors.
Upset that police weren’t shifting in, he raised the thought of charging into the varsity with a number of different bystanders.
“Let’s just rush in because the cops aren’t doing anything like they are supposed to,” he stated. “More could have been done.”
“They were unprepared,” he added.
Carranza had watched as Ramos crashed his truck right into a ditch outdoors the varsity, grabbed his AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle and shot at two individuals outdoors a funeral house, who ran away unhurt.
Lt. Christopher Olivarez of the Department of Public Safety informed CNN that the varsity safety officer outdoors was armed and that preliminary experiences stated he and Ramos exchanged gunfire. “But right now we’re trying to corroborate that information,” Olivarez stated.
After coming into the varsity, Ramos barricaded himself in a classroom and started to kill.
Carranza stated the officers ought to have entered the varsity sooner.
“There were more of them. There was just one of him,” he stated.
On Wednesday evening, a whole bunch packed the bleachers on the city’s fairgrounds for a vigil. Some cried. Some closed their eyes tight, mouthing silent prayers. Parents wrapped their arms round their youngsters because the audio system led prayers for therapeutic.
Before attacking the varsity, Ramos shot and wounded his grandmother on the house they shared.
Neighbor Gilbert Gallegos, 82, who lives throughout the road and has identified the household for many years, stated he was puttering in his yard when he heard the photographs.
Ramos ran out the entrance door and throughout the yard to a truck parked in entrance of the home and raced away: “He spun out, I mean fast,” spraying gravel within the air, Gallegos stated.
Ramos’ grandmother emerged lined in blood: “She says, ‘Berto, this is what he did. He shot me.’” She was hospitalized.
Gallegos stated he had heard no arguments earlier than or after the photographs, and knew of no historical past of bullying or abuse of Ramos, whom he hardly ever noticed.
Lorena Auguste was substitute educating at Uvalde High School when she heard in regards to the taking pictures and started frantically texting her niece, a fourth grader at Robb Elementary. Eventually she came upon the lady was OK.
But that evening, her niece had a query.
“Why did they do this to us?” the lady requested. “We’re good kids. We didn’t do anything wrong.”
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Bleiberg reported from Dallas.
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More on the varsity taking pictures in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings
Source: www.bostonherald.com”