Photo: Uvalde Leader News
01of 09Uvalde School ShootingUvalde Leader NewsIn photos fromUvalde Leader News, terrified students of Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, can be seen escaping through the school’s windows with help from police.After Tuesday’sschool shootingthatkilled 21 people— including 19 students and two adults — witnesses recounted seeing panicked parentsrushing to help kids out of the school.
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Uvalde School Shooting
Uvalde Leader News
In photos fromUvalde Leader News, terrified students of Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, can be seen escaping through the school’s windows with help from police.
After Tuesday’sschool shootingthatkilled 21 people— including 19 students and two adults — witnesses recounted seeing panicked parentsrushing to help kids out of the school.
02of 09Uvalde School ShootingUvalde Leader News"Fathers smashed windows, and physically pulled their kids out of classrooms. There was a lot of chaos," Ernest “Chip” King, a Uvalde firefighter who was one of the first responders at the scene,told PEOPLE.One police officer described seeing teachers frantically attempting a head count of their students. Being the end of the school year, several students were absent and teachers couldn’t remember who was out.“I saw one teacher trying not to cry as she asked the kids who had been absent that day,” the officer said.
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“Fathers smashed windows, and physically pulled their kids out of classrooms. There was a lot of chaos,” Ernest “Chip” King, a Uvalde firefighter who was one of the first responders at the scene,told PEOPLE.
One police officer described seeing teachers frantically attempting a head count of their students. Being the end of the school year, several students were absent and teachers couldn’t remember who was out.
“I saw one teacher trying not to cry as she asked the kids who had been absent that day,” the officer said.
03of 09Uvalde School ShootingUvalde Leader NewsBerlinda Arreola, 49, whose granddaughterAmerie Jo Garzawas killed in the shooting,described the panicked reactionfrom parents who wanted to run into the school for their children.“Everyone was just showing up and they weren’t doing anything,” Arreola told PEOPLE. “The parents were being all crazy, like, ‘Why aren’t you all doing anything? Why aren’t you going in?’ But they were like, ‘Until he opens gunfire, we can’t do anything. We’re holding on so that he doesn’t open gunfire.’ “Arreola explained that it was already too late. “We didn’t know that he had already opened gunfire in there. We didn’t even know that he had already shot all the kids. It was already done,” she said.
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Berlinda Arreola, 49, whose granddaughterAmerie Jo Garzawas killed in the shooting,described the panicked reactionfrom parents who wanted to run into the school for their children.
“Everyone was just showing up and they weren’t doing anything,” Arreola told PEOPLE. “The parents were being all crazy, like, ‘Why aren’t you all doing anything? Why aren’t you going in?’ But they were like, ‘Until he opens gunfire, we can’t do anything. We’re holding on so that he doesn’t open gunfire.’ "
Arreola explained that it was already too late. “We didn’t know that he had already opened gunfire in there. We didn’t even know that he had already shot all the kids. It was already done,” she said.
04of 09Uvalde School ShootingUvalde Leader NewsThe director of the Texas Department of Public Safety has since said that the Chief of Police Pete Arredondomade the “wrong decision"in not confronting the shooter untilmore than 40 minutes afterhe entered the school.“From the benefit of hindsight where I’m sitting now, of course, it was not the right decision,” Col. Steven McCraw told reporters. “It was a wrong decision. There’s no excuse for that. We believe there should have been an entry as soon as you can. When there’s an active shooter, the rules change.“According to McCraw, the shooterbarricaded himself inside a classroomthat they believed was otherwise empty.All of the victimswerefound in that room.
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The director of the Texas Department of Public Safety has since said that the Chief of Police Pete Arredondomade the “wrong decision"in not confronting the shooter untilmore than 40 minutes afterhe entered the school.
“From the benefit of hindsight where I’m sitting now, of course, it was not the right decision,” Col. Steven McCraw told reporters. “It was a wrong decision. There’s no excuse for that. We believe there should have been an entry as soon as you can. When there’s an active shooter, the rules change.”
According to McCraw, the shooterbarricaded himself inside a classroomthat they believed was otherwise empty.All of the victimswerefound in that room.
05of 09Uvalde School ShootingUvalde Leader NewsOne police officertold PEOPLEthat they stood outside the school for more than an hour, waiting for a signal to go in and neutralize the gunman.“There was almost a mutiny,” he said. “We were like, ‘There’s a f—ing gunman in the school, we hear gunshots, and we’re just going to stand here with our thumbs up our asses?’ We wanted to go in and save lives. It was the most frustrating situation of my entire career.““We felt like cowards. It felt cowardly to stand off and let this punk, this kid, this 18-year-old asshole just go in and do whatever he wanted to do. There was a lot of arguing, a lot of cussing, a lot of people who were saying that we should just say f— it and go in, but then what? We needed to have a plan, and the commander didn’t have a plan,” the officer added.
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One police officertold PEOPLEthat they stood outside the school for more than an hour, waiting for a signal to go in and neutralize the gunman.
“There was almost a mutiny,” he said. “We were like, ‘There’s a f—ing gunman in the school, we hear gunshots, and we’re just going to stand here with our thumbs up our asses?’ We wanted to go in and save lives. It was the most frustrating situation of my entire career.”
“We felt like cowards. It felt cowardly to stand off and let this punk, this kid, this 18-year-old asshole just go in and do whatever he wanted to do. There was a lot of arguing, a lot of cussing, a lot of people who were saying that we should just say f— it and go in, but then what? We needed to have a plan, and the commander didn’t have a plan,” the officer added.
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In the letter, Castro asked the bureau to “use its maximum authority to thoroughly examine the timeline of events and the law enforcement response.”
07of 09Uvalde School ShootingUvalde Leader NewsMiah Cerrillo, an 11-year-old who was injured in the attack, recountedcovering herself in her friend’s bloodand playing dead after the shooter opened fire on her class. She told CNN it felt like she was laying there for three hours.Her classmate Samuel Salinas, 10, alsopretended to be dead, even after a piece of shrapnel hit his leg. “I played dead so he wouldn’t shoot me,” he said."[The shooter] came in and said, ‘You’re all gonna die,’ and just started shooting,” Salinas said. “He shot the teacher and then he shot the kids.”
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Miah Cerrillo, an 11-year-old who was injured in the attack, recountedcovering herself in her friend’s bloodand playing dead after the shooter opened fire on her class. She told CNN it felt like she was laying there for three hours.
Her classmate Samuel Salinas, 10, alsopretended to be dead, even after a piece of shrapnel hit his leg. “I played dead so he wouldn’t shoot me,” he said.
“[The shooter] came in and said, ‘You’re all gonna die,’ and just started shooting,” Salinas said. “He shot the teacher and then he shot the kids.”
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“He shot and killed — horrifically, incomprehensibly — 14 students and killed a teacher. [The shooter], he himself is deceased,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott initially said. “And it is believed that responding officers killed him.”
Before arriving at the school, Ramosshot his grandmotherat her residence, and she was subsequently airlifted to a hospital.
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PresidentJoe Bidenhas sincespoken out about the shooting, expressing his anger over the country’s ongoing gun violence.
On Wednesday, he signed an executive order on policing and public safety andpushed for “commonsense gun reforms.”
“As a nation, I think we all must be there for them,” Biden said.“And we must ask: When in God’s name will we do what needs to be done to, if not completely stop, fundamentally change the amount of the carnage that goes on in this country?”
source: people.com
