On 24 May 2022, Salvador Ramos shot and killed nineteen students and two teachers, injuring countless more, at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. This was the deadliest school shooting in almost ten years. As a result, people want to know exactly what happened that day, however, police narratives have shifted since the massacre. Here is the most recent police narrative of the Uvalde school shooting.
1. The shooter was not stopped by a school resource officer.
Originally, the police stated that a school resource officer met and attempted to apprehend Ramos before he entered the school. Now, the police are stating that Ramos was not confronted by a resource officer because an officer was not posted at Robb Elementary School at the time. A resource officer did hear about a 911 call about a man with a gun, but instead mistakenly stopped a teacher, whom the officer had thought was the suspect, unwittingly driving by Ramos.
2. The door to the classroom was closed but not locked.
Contrary to initial reports, the back classroom door was not left propped open; the door was closed, but not locked because the door did not lock. The shooter was able to enter through this door because it was not locked, not because it was propped open.
3. Ramos shared his plans to shoot his grandmother and a school through private messages.
Ramos never shared his plans to shoot his grandmother and a school publicly through Facebook. Instead, private messages were sent. The wrong information at first because Texas governor Greg Abbott was given inaccurate information.
4. It took law enforcement over an hour to kill Ramos.
Ramos was on the campus of Robb Elementary School for over an hour before a Border Patrol tactical unit killed him. He entered the school at 11:33 AM, and was killed at 12:50 PM. Law enforcement waited outside the classroom, while terrified students made 911 calls and frustrated parents waited.
5. The police did not act sooner because the commander did not know it was an active shooter situation.
The police did not immediately enter the classroom because the commander, the Uvalde school district police chief, believed the situation was a barricaded subject situation and thought there was time to wait for the keys to the classroom. Keys from the janitor were used by the tactical team to enter the classroom.
6. The school district police chief did not believe he was in charge of the incident.
The school district police chief, Pedro Arredondo, assumed another officer was the commander and acted as a front-line responder rather than ordering the police to breach the classroom immediately. Arredondo did not have his police radio or campus radio at the time because he believed both would hinder his mobility in managing the gunman.
7. The school district police chief is working with state investigators.
Arredondo initially declined further interviews, but stated he is in contact with authorities of the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) daily on June 1. He declined to share any more information out of respect for the funerals of the victims.
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