Heavily armed Uvalde, Texas, cops were inside Robb Elementary School nine minutes after a gunman began his killing spree, but waited 58 minutes to enter the classroom where the carnage took place, newly released footage reportedly shows.
Numerous officers armed with rifles and at least one ballistic shield had gathered in a hallway outside the classroom as the sound of gunfire rang out from within, the Austin American-Statesman reported Monday.
Three minutes after the gunman sauntered in at 11:33 a.m. and began spraying gunfire from a military assault rifle, 11 cops with pistols were inside the school. Uvalde school district police chief Pete Arredondo called in a request for more firepower at 11:40 a.m., and just four minutes later, more shots could be heard on the body cam.
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The first ballistic-shield-bearing officer entered the school at 11:52, the American-Statesman reported, a second at 12:03 p.m. and a third two minutes later. Arredondo tried talking to the gunman as well, according to audio from the footage, which included both body camera and surveillance video.
But he didn’t appear to try to get inside, the San Antonio Express News reported Saturday. Officers indicated in their initial body camera transcript that Arredondo had gone looking for keys to the door. However, the footage appears to show they never tried to confirm it was locked. Arredondo has repeatedly claimed he was waiting for keys from a janitor.
At 12:46 p.m. Arredondo finally told SWAT team officers to breach the door, the American-Statesman said.
The timeline was the latest in one that has reportedly changed at least 13 times since May 31, according to Insider. Besides the timeline, key details have changed in the weeks since May 24, when the 18-year-old shooter killed 19 children and two teachers.
Arredondo reportedly arrived without his radio and did not know the besieged kids were calling 911 from inside the classroom. A teacher was said to have propped open the back door the gunman came through; however, it turned out the teacher had closed the door, but it had not locked automatically as it was supposed to.
The gunman was inside the school for a total of 80 minutes, and cops were present for 77 of them.
Steven McCraw, head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, has said Arredondo made the “wrong decision” in holding back officers because he thought it had become a hostage situation rather than an active shooter situation.
Parents and some of the surviving teachers have criticized the response.
