Police with rifles and and at least one ballistic shield arrived to the scene of the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, minutes after the gunman, but waited more than an hour in a nearby hallway before engaging him, new documents and video footage reveals.
The footage shows officers becoming impatient, hearing gunshots inside as they wait for an order from leadership to engage with attacker Salvador Ramos, the Austin American-Statesmen reports.
Ramos, who was killed during the eventual police raid, entered Robb Elementary School at 11:33am, according to the documents, the most detailed look yet at the flawed law enforcement response to the shooting.
Nine minutes later, the first of multiple officers with ballistics shields joined officers near the classroom where the 18-year-old gunman had barricaded himself.
“If there’s kids in there, we need to go in there,” one officer can be heard saying, according to the Statesmen, which reviewed the footage and records, which are part of an investigation by state authorities into what went wrong at Uvalde.
Another responded, “Whoever is in charge will determine that.”
That order to engage didn’t come until nearly an hour-and-a-half after Ramos arrived on campus and shot 19 students and two teachers.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated with new information.
Douglas Mateo
Source Link Officers had rifles and shields within minutes but waited an hour to breach Uvalde class, new timeline reveals