Two days after the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two adults at Robb Elementary School dead, questions are being raised about the speed of law enforcement’s response.
While some facts are generally known about the rampage by 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, which ended with Ramos fatally shot by a Border Patrol agent, others are still disputed, and crucial details remain publicly missing about what transpired between when the gunman first arrived at the school and when he was killed.
And a period of between 30 to more than 60 minutes is key.
According to a New York Times report, Ramos arrived at the school about 11:30 a.m. He had just shot his grandmother in the home where they lived.
ABC News reported Wednesday that Texas Public Safety Director Tim McGraw said Ramos encountered a police officer assigned to the school, who tried to stop him from entering. It said Ramos shot the officer.
Two more Uvalde police officers tried to stop the shooter, according to The Associated Press, but Ramos was able to get into the school, where he entered a classroom and began the killing.
However, in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Rep. Tony Gonzalez, a Democrat who represents the Uvalde area, said no fire was exchanged between Ramos and the officers outside the building.
He said there was a “kind of a 30-minute lull” between when Ramos entered the classroom and when the Border Patrol agent brought him down.
However, considering Ramos was not killed until after 1 p.m., it was much more than 30 minutes.
2/ LE manage to “contain” him to one room where he apparently is just there for about “30 minutes” while rest of school evacuated. After evacuation they go in and kill him
Still massive gaps in timeline and major questions. Was he murdering kids during this “containment”? pic.twitter.com/7anZJPWLpr
— Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar) May 25, 2022
What happened in that period is where the questions arise.
According to the AP, Javier Cazares, whose fourth-grade daughter, Jacklyn Cazares, was killed in the attack, said he found police outside the building after he heard about the attack and rushed to the scene.
He said he suggested to other civilians that they head for the building themselves.
“Let’s just rush in because the cops aren’t doing anything like they are supposed to,” he told the AP. “More could have been done.”
This video make so much more sense now. The cops literally stopped parents from helping their kids. pic.twitter.com/zhQfUjlpjd https://t.co/DqgZUH3uCC
— Matt Novak (@paleofuture) May 26, 2022
The AP cited a “law enforcement official familiar with the investigation” who said Border Patrol agents who responded needed to get a key to the classroom where Ramos was barricaded from a school employee.
An Uvalde Police Department Facebook post reported the “Shooter is in Police Custody” at 1:06 p.m.
What isn’t known, at least publicly, is why there was such a delay between when Ramos entered the building to begin his slaughter and when law enforcement entered to stop him.
It’s also unclear whether that had anything to do with the number of victims who died or when, specifically, they were shot. However, one student survivor interviewed by San Antonio’s KENS-TV recounted hiding from the gunman in the classroom during the ordeal.
What is clear, as the political and media fallout continues, is that there are still plenty of questions to answer surrounding the killing.
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