Crime
Police had firepower, gear to breach Uvalde classroom and neutralize shooter much earlier: report
Officers with rifles, ballistic shield were inside Uvalde school during shooting for nearly an hour.
June 20, 2022 8:56pm
Updated: June 21, 2022 9:18am
During the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, last month, multiple officers with rifles and at least one ballistic shield were inside the school for 58 minutes before breaching the classroom door and taking out the shooter, according to documents reviewed by the Austin-American Statesman.
The officers waited in a hallway within nine minutes after the 18-year-old gunman, Salvador Ramos, had arrived at the school.
White the officers stood in the hallway, the shooter could be heard firing rounds at 12:29 p.m., which was 29 minutes before the classroom was breached.
According to a transcript of body camera footage, officers were trying to determine what actions they were to take next.
Chief of the Uvalde school district police force, Pete Arredondo, was trying to find keys to unlock the classroom door, but officials do not believe the officers attempted to open the door.
The officers didn't breach the room until 12:50 p.m.
