The shooting in Uvalde sparked horror around the world. Now the local police are under increasing pressure: The shooter probably spends more than an hour in the classroom before security forces arrive.
According to official sources, the Uvalde gunman spent around an hour in the classroom where he caused a bloodbath. Only then did reinforcements arrive and kill the gunman, said Victor Escalon of the Texas Department of Public Safety at a press conference.
The 18-year-old attacker Salvador Ramos entered the school in the municipality of Uvalde around 11.40 a.m. (local time) on Tuesday and finally entered a classroom near the entrance. Security forces were on site, but initially did not go into the classroom because they had been shot at. The police then called for reinforcements, Escalon said. They lacked special equipment. They evacuated school children and teachers and tried to negotiate with the shooter. He fired most of the shots at the very beginning. “There wasn’t much shooting during the negotiations, other than trying to keep the cops at bay,” Escalon said.
It was also revealed that school had not been completed. The police had already been called when witnesses saw the armed shooter in front of the school. Recently there had been loud criticism from parents of the actions of the emergency services. They accuse the police of being idle for too long. This is coming under more and more pressure to justify itself. It was a “complex situation,” Escalon said. He asked for more time to analyze the events in more detail. The shooter shot dead 19 school children and two teachers in the elementary school on Tuesday. He massacred a classroom.
US President Joe Biden travels to Uvalde on Sunday. The President and his wife Jill want to join the city’s residents in mourning the 21 deaths, the White House said. Biden had already announced on Wednesday that he would travel to Uvalde “in the coming days”.