When Gunman Was On A Rampage In Texas School, Cops Waited For More Than An Hour After 911 Call
The mass shooting at the Robb Elementary School in Texas on Tuesday was one of the worst incidents of gun violence in the US in recent history.
A total of 21 people including 19 students and two adults were indiscriminately shot down by an 18-year-old gunman.
Even as the grief and anger continue, it has now emerged that the carnage could have been avoided, if the cops had acted on time.
According to Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, students who were trapped inside a classroom with a gunman repeatedly called 911, including one who pleaded, ¡°Please send the police now,¡± as officers waited more than an hour before going in.
Children are not in danger, the commander felt
The commander at the scene believed that the gunman Salvador Ramos was barricaded inside adjoining classrooms and that children were no longer at risk, McCraw said during a news conference.
¡°It was the wrong decision,¡± he said.
According to new information emerging, three police officers had followed Ramos into the building within two minutes and in the next half hour, as many as 19 officers piled into the hallway outside.
But it took another 47 minutes before the Border Patrol tactical team breached the door.
Let us go in, other agencies tell police
As the gunman fired at students, law enforcement officers from other agencies urged the school police chief to let them move in because children were in danger.
But the commander inside the building ¡ª the school district's police chief, Pete Arredondo ¡ª decided the group should wait to confront the gunman, on the belief that the scene was no longer an active attack, McCraw said.
The crisis came to an end at 12:50 p.m., after officers used keys from a janitor to open the classroom door, entered the room and fatally shot Ramos.
The motive of the Ramos who had also shot his grandmother before laving the family home is unclear.
Children pretended to be dead?
Young survivors of the attack said they pretended to be dead while waiting for help.
Miah Cerrillo, 11, told CNN that she covered herself with a friend's blood to look dead. After the shooter moved into an adjacent room, she could hear screams, more gunfire and music being blared by the gunman.
Samuel Salinas, 10, who also played dead, told ABC's ¡°Good Morning America¡± that the assailant shot teacher Irma Garcia before firing on the kids.
(With agency inputs)
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