A huge trove of audio and video recordings, including a 911 call related to the May 2022 Robb Elementary School Shooting Uvalde authorities released the information Saturday after a lengthy legal battle. The Associated Press and other news organizations sued after authorities initially refused to release it publicly.
“Maybe he could listen to me because he listens to me, he listens to everything I tell him,” the man, who identified himself as Armando Ramos, said in the 911 call. “Maybe he could back off or do something to surrender,” Ramos said, his voice breaking.
The caller told the dispatcher that the shooter, identified as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, was with him at his home the night before. He said his nephew stayed with him in his room all night and told him he was upset because his grandmother was “bothering” him.
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“Oh my God, please, please don’t do anything stupid,” the man on the phone said. “I think he’s shooting children.”
The call came in around 1 p.m. on May 24, 2022, about 10 minutes after the shooting stopped. Salvador Ramos was fatally shot by authorities at 12:50 p.m. He had entered the school at 11:33 a.m., authorities said.
The delay Law enforcement response – nearly 400 police officers waited more than 70 minutes before confronting the shooter in a classroom full of dead and wounded children and teachers – was widely condemned as a massive failureThe Uvalde massacre was one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history.
Multiple federal and state investigations into the slow response by law enforcement have exposed cascading problems in training, communications, leadership and technology, and have called into question whether officers prioritized their own lives over those of children and teachers in this South Texas city of about 15,000, 80 miles west of San Antonio. The victims’ families have long sought accountability for the slow police response.
Two of the officers who participated in the raid are now facing criminal charges: Former Uvalde School Police Chief Pete Arredondo and former school police officer Adrian Gonzales have pleaded not guilty to multiple charges of child abandonment and endangerment. A suspended Texas state trooper in Uvalde was reinstated earlier this month.
Some families have called for more officers to be charged and have filed federal and state lawsuits against law enforcement, social media, online gaming companies and the gun manufacturer that made the rifle used by the shooter.
THE police response The attack included nearly 150 U.S. Border Patrol agents and 91 state police officers, as well as school and city police. As dozens of officers stood in the hallway trying to figure out what to do, students inside the classroom called 911 on their cell phones, begging for help, and desperate parents who had gathered outside the building pleaded with officers to come in. A tactical team eventually entered the classroom and killed the shooter.
Earlier videos released by school cameras showed police officers, some armed with rifles and bulletproof shields, waiting in the hallway.
A city-commissioned report, however, defended the actions of local police, saying officers displayed “immeasurable force” and “level-headed thinking” as they faced the gunman’s gunfire and refrained from firing into a darkened classroom.
