Police Waited 40 Minutes Before Border Patrol Agent Confronted Texas Shooter

“Go in there! Go in there!” shouted bystanders.

QUICK FACTS:
  • Law enforcement are facing questions over how much time elapsed before entering a Texas elementary school classroom to stop to the rampage by gunman Salvador Ramos, who killed 19 children and two teachers.
  • Ramos reportedly barricaded himself inside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday as police waited outside for 40 minutes.
  • Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw confirmed on Wednesday that 40 minutes to an hour had elapsed between when Ramos opened fire on the school security officer and when Border Patrol shot him.
  • “The bottom line is law enforcement was there,” McCraw said. “They did engage immediately. They did contain [Ramos] in the classroom.”
  • Women on the street outside the school shouted to officers “Go in there! Go in there!” after the attack began, according to Juan Carranza (24), who watched the scene from outside a nearby house.
  • Javier Cazares’s fourth-grade daughter, Jacklyn Cazares, was killed in the attack. He came to the school when he heard about the shooting and found police still gathered outside. “Let’s just rush in because the cops aren’t doing anything like they are supposed to,” he said. “More could have been done.”
  • The Texas Dept. of Public Safety Regional Director Victor Escalon said during a press conference on Thursday that there was no school resource officer on location at the school when Ramos arrived: “It was reported that a school district police officer confronted the suspect that was making entry—Not accurate. He walked in unobstructed,” said Escalon “From the grandma’s house… into the school, he was not confronted by anyone.”
  • Ramos’ attack was ended when a U.S. Border Patrol team burst in and shot the gunman to death.

***WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

AUTHORITIES DON’T HAVE AN “AN ACCURATE OR CONFIDENT TIMELINE”:
  • Department spokesman Lt. Christopher Olivarez said Thursday that authorities were still working to clarify the timeline of the attack.
  • “Right now we do not have an accurate or confident timeline to provide to say the gunman was in the school for this period,” Olivarez told CNN.
BACKGROUND:
  • Ramos entered the school with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle after crashing his truck into a ditch outside. He shot at and injured two people outside a nearby funeral home and two police officers.
  • A member of the elite Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC) has been credited with killing the shooter, sustaining a wound to the head after being grazed by a bullet.

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