DALLAS– As gunshots rang out in the hallways and classrooms of Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, one of the terrified teachers who frantically called 911 described “lots and lots of gunfire,” while another sobbed into the phone as a dispatcher urged her to stay quiet.
“Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up, hurry up!” the first teacher shouted before hanging up.
Those calls, along with body camera footage and surveillance video, were included in a massive collection of audio and video recordings released by Uvalde city authorities Saturday after a lengthy legal battle. The Associated Press and other news outlets sued after authorities initially refused to publicly release information about one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history.
One of the first calls police received on the morning of May 24, 2022, was from a woman who called 911 to report that a pickup truck had crashed into a ditch and the occupant had run onto the school campus.
“Oh my God, they have a gun,” she said.
A few minutes later, a man calls 911 and yells, “He’s shooting at kids! Get back!”
“He’s inside the school! He’s inside the school,” he yells as the others’ screams are heard as well.
“Oh my God, in the name of Jesus. He is inside the school and shooting at children,” he said.
The delayed response by law enforcement to the shooting – nearly 400 officers waited more than 70 minutes before confronting the gunman in a classroom full of dead and wounded children and teachers – was widely condemned as a massive failure.
The shooter, Salvador Ramos, 18, was fatally shot by authorities at 12:50 p.m. He had entered the school at 11:33 a.m., authorities said.
Just before arriving at school, Ramos shot and wounded his grandmother in her home. He then took a van from the house and drove to the school.
Ramos’ distraught uncle made several calls to 911 asking to be contacted so he could try to convince his nephew to stop shooting.
“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.
He said his nephew, who had been with him at his home the night before, had stayed with him in his room all night and told him he was upset because his grandmother was “bothering” him.
“Oh my God, please, please don’t do anything stupid,” the man on the phone said. “I think he’s shooting children.”
But the offer came too late, just as the shootout ended and law enforcement killed Salvador Ramos.
Multiple federal and state investigations into the slow police response have highlighted cascading problems in training, communication, leadership and technology, and have called into question the officers’ prioritization of their own lives over those of children and teachers in this South Texas city of about 15,000, 80 miles (130 kilometers) west of San Antonio. Victims’ families have long sought accountability for the slow police response.
Uziyah Garcia, Brett Cross’s 10-year-old nephew, was among the victims. Cross, who raised his son like a son, was angry that relatives were not informed of the release of the documents and that it took so long for them to be made public.
“If we thought we could get everything we wanted, we would ask for a time machine to save our children, but that is not possible. All we ask for is justice, accountability and transparency, and they refuse to give it to us,” he said. “It is a simple and modest request that I believe is owed to us.”
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.
In an interview with CNN this week, Arredondo said he believes he has been made the “scapegoat” for law enforcement’s botched response.
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.
Just before officers finally enter the classroom, an officer can be heard on a body camera expressing concerns about friendly fire.
“I’m a little worried about the blue-on-blue guns,” one officer said. “There are so many guns here.”
The break-in into the classroom was followed by five to six seconds of gunfire. Officers rushed forward as someone yelled, “Watch the kids! Watch the kids! Watch the kids!”
Less than a minute into the chaos, someone shouted, “Where’s the suspect?” Someone else immediately responded, “He’s dead!”
The police response involved 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, pleading for help, and desperate parents who had gathered outside the building pleaded with officers to intervene. 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 “common sense thinking” as they faced the gunman’s gunfire and refrained from firing into a darkened classroom.
