Uvalde Elementary School (screen capture via WFAA)Extremely disconcerting: Surveillance footage during the deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, shows police didn’t try to open the door to the classroom where young children were trapped with the gunman.
The gunman, Salvador Ramos, could not have locked the classroom door from the inside, and investigators now believe it may have been open the whole time, according to a new report. https://t.co/rwNtJMauFV
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) June 19, 2022
More via The Daily Beast:
A law enforcement source cited by the San Antonio Express-News on Saturday said surveillance footage revealed no attempts by officers to open the door during the entire 77-minute siege at Robb Elementary School.
Nineteen children and two teachers were killed during that time. In the wake of the massacre, police claimed part of the reason they took so long to confront the shooter was because officers could not access the classroom and needed to wait for a key.
But the law enforcement source told the Express-News that the gunman, Salvador Ramos, could not have locked the classroom door from the inside, and investigators believe it may have been open the whole time.
In addition, the source said, a forcible entry tool called a halligan bar was available to officers throughout the siege, which would have allowed them to open even a locked door.
Also, the New York Times reports that two Uvalde officers had separate opportunities to shoot the gunman before the deadly massacre. One officer didn’t shoot because he was afraid of hitting children. Another had arrived early and drove past Ramos in the parking lot not realizing he was the gunman.
The FBI and the Texas Rangers are currently investigating the police response to the mass shooting.
A Uvalde policeman had a shot at the gunman outside Robb Elementary but hesitated. That decision, which wasn’t previously reported, was the second missed opportunity for officers arriving at the school to prevent a massacre. via @NYTimes https://t.co/suOEVdVZsa
— Sig Christenson 🏕 (@saddamscribe) June 18, 2022
For more than an hour, police never tried to open a door to the rooms where a gunman massacred 21 people at Robb Elementary, a source tells me.
The gunman could not have locked it from the inside. The doors can only be locked or unlocked from outside. https://t.co/d6XgEkLe1u
— Brian Chasnoff (@bchasnoff) June 18, 2022