Addressing the mass-shooting that claimed 21 lives in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday, Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw acknowledged Friday that responding officers waited too long to breach the classroom where the killing took place.
Speaking to reporters at a press conference held at the scene of the shooting, McCraw said that the on-scene incident commander, the School District’s Chief of Police Peter Arredondo, made the decision to fall back and wait for U.S. Border Patrol Tactical Teams to breach the classroom.
McCraw said the decision to delay entering the classroom was mistaken. According to Texas active shooter doctrine, officers are required to make an immediate breach to neutralize the suspect when there is a risk to life. He said that Arredondo had “an obligation to move back to active shooter situation” and force entry into the classroom, even at personal risk, if he believed that children were still inside. “There should have been an entry as soon as you can,” he added.
“It was a wrong decision. Period,” he said.
That decision was made after an initial exchange of gunfire with the gunman, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, which led two police officers and one U.S. Border Patrol agent to be shot.
McCraw said that the shooting began at around 11:33 a.m. on Tuesday, when Ramos entered the school through a door after firing at west-facing classroom windows. A video of his entry was obtained by National Review through U.S. Customs and Border Protection. During this time, the school was not placed on lockdown, and Ramos gained entry into Classroom 111, facing his point of entry, through a door left open by a teacher. He was carrying 58 magazines of ammunition for a total of 1,657 rounds.
At 11:35 a.m., three officers arrived, who were immediately fired upon by Ramos, who injured two with “grazing wounds.” By 12:00 p.m., as many as 19 officers were present in the school. However, Chief Arredondo believed that situation had “transitioned” from an “active shooter to a barricaded subject” — i.e., that there was no longer a risk to students in the two classrooms, who were presumed dead.
Arredondo, as McCraw explained, believed that he “needed more equipment to conduct a breach.” The Uvalde Police Department’s part-time SWAT team was unable to mobilize, McCraw suggested. During this time, the shooter was present in the classroom with children, where it is believed that several were killed.
Border Patrol Tactical Teams arrived at the school at 12:15 but were only able to breach the classroom doors where the shooter was located at 12:50 due to the door being locked. Keys from the school’s janitor were sought to open the door during that time. Upon entry at 12:50, tactical officers killed the shooter.
The tactical team was initially prevented from entering the school by local police officers, the New York Times reported.
During that period when officers were waiting, McCraw explained that numerous 911 calls were being made to the Uvalde Police Department, from teachers and children in the two classrooms in hiding. The first call McCraw noted was made at 12:03 from the adjacent Room 112, which was connected to Room 111 by an unlocked wall door.
Over the next 45 minutes, several calls were made, with students whispering their locations and pleading for help. Gunfire could be heard by 911 operators over the telephone. At 12:16, a student caller in the other room said that 8 to 9 students were still alive. This information was not relayed by police dispatch to Chief Arredondo at the scene, who believed that only the shooter was alive inside the classroom. In response to questions about whether Arredondo heard the shots, McCraw said that most rounds fired by the suspect were within the first two minutes of Ramos’ entry, with few rounds fired thereafter. He also noted that the door had been closed.
One student, who called in at 12:26, said that she could “hear police in the next room,” and asked for them to be sent in immediately. They entered the room 24 minutes later.
McCraw also said that the school’s resource officer was not on campus at the time, for which he gave no reason. Neither were any of school district’s six in-house police officers. He added that the investigation was ongoing to determine their whereabouts at the time of the shooting.
In his remarks, McCraw also clarified several details about the events leading up to the shooting, which had previously been reported. He stated that Ramos, while still a minor, had sought to purchase a gun as early as September of 2021 in a message to his sister, which she “flatly refused.” Indications of Ramos’ violent behavior were noted by several online contacts on social media platform Instagram — where, in group chatroom of which he was a part, he was discussed as a “school shooter” in February of 2022.
Over the next month, the Ramos discussed buying a gun in the chatroom. “Word on the street is that you’re buying a gun,” one user wrote, “Just bought something,” Ramos replied. McCraw said that Ramos had later used a debit card to purchase two weapons from an Oasis Outback store in Uvalde, along with 375 rounds of ammunition. On March 14, a user in that chatroom asked Ramos, “Are you going to shoot up a school or something?”
“Stop asking dumb questions,” he replied.
McCraw also dismissed an earlier claim that Ramos had been arrested in 2018, first made by Congressman Tony Gonzalez (D., Texas) on Friday. He said that, while two juveniles (then aged 13 and 14) known to Ramos were charged with attempted capital murder and conspiracy to commit capital murder, Ramos was not one of them.