Last Updated on May 26, 2022
Uvalde police officers reportedly waited outside for close to an hour as the killer carried out his massacre. Distressing videos reportedly show parents begging the officers to intervene as they stood outside. The gunman was ultimately taken down by an off-duty border patrol agent who responded via police radio.
Uvalde police officers reportedly waited for a tactical unit before entering the school. By that time, the gunman had killed 19 schoolchildren and two adults.
“Go in there! Go in there!” parents reportedly shouted.
According to a report from the New York Times, the gunman initially fired at two people outside a funeral home, as well as two immediately responding officers. He still managed to gain entry to the school, however, where he proceeded to barricade himself inside a classroom.
Reports of an armed man approaching the school first emerged around 11:30 am, which was later confirmed by surveillance footage. A border patrol tactical unit eventually killed the gunman shortly after 1 pm.
Raul Ortiz, Chief of the U.S. Border Patrol, said responding agents came up with a plan as quickly as they could, according to Breitbart News. “They didn’t hesitate. They came up with a plan. They entered that classroom and they took care of the situation as quickly as they possibly could,” Ortiz said.
All of the murdered school children were reportedly killed in a single classroom.
One distressing clip shows several parents trying to get past police lines. One woman appeared to be pinned on the ground by an officer while another yelled, “What the f–k are you doing to her? Let her go!”
“That’s f—ing crazy, bro — they’re standing all outside [and] there’s f—ing kids in there still, man,” a parent can be heard saying in another clip.
The person filming the livestream told one officer, “Half of these f—ing parents here, dude, they wanna go in there — without vests, without guns — to get their f—ing kids.”
Javier Cazares — whose daughter, Jacklyn Cazares, was killed in the shooting — called police “unprepared.” He recalled hearing gunfire and suggesting to others at the scene, “Let’s just rush in because the cops aren’t doing anything like they are supposed to,” according to the New York Post.
U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales described a roughly “40-minute lull in the action” where the gunman was reportedly barricaded inside. It is unclear whether the casualties stopped after he barricaded himself inside the classroom.
Police tactics before Columbine instructed officers to wait outside in the case of hostages. After the 90’s massacre, police departments overhauled their tactics and trained officers to respond to mass shootings in small tactical teams that can be comprised by as little as four officers.
Questions have been raised as to why this response was not implemented.
This is a developing story.
