TX - Uvalde; Robb Elementary, 19 children and 3 adults killed, shooter dead, 24 MAY 2022

[Friday Fan]

Who mislead him? Was it while the shootings were happening or after the fact? Big difference. Waiting to see how this is taken care of

After the fact.
He says he was misled as he prepared for his Wednesday press conference. He thought he had his facts straight about the shooting timeline based on what he was told as he was preparing for his Wednesday press conference. Now there is a different set of facts.

 

[Seattle1]

Uvalde police chief who delayed officer response to shooting to join City Council

Peter Arredondo, chief since 2020, campaigned on communication and outreach “to those in need,” the local newspaper reported.

www.nbcnews.com

May 27, 2022, 2:04 PM PDT

The Uvalde police chief who made the call not to immediately send officers into Robb Elementary School to confront a gunman was elected to the City’s Council just three weeks ago after running on a platform of communication and outreach to the community.
Peter Arredondo, the chief of police for the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, stopped at least 19 officers from breaking into the school as the gunman opened fire for at least an hour.

Arredondo believed that the shooter had barricaded himself and that the children were not under an active threat, Steven McCraw, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said Friday.

[..]

According to McCraw, Arredondo believed there was no active threat, so instead of sending officers in, he spent time finding keys that would let him into the school. During this time, however, Ramos had unencumbered access to carry out the attack. Nineteen students and two teachers were killed.

Arredondo was not present among law enforcement officials standing with McCraw on Friday, and McCraw did not explicitly name him.

[..]

As the community demands answers and pieces together a shaky and conflicting timeline of events, scrutiny has turned to Arredondo, who was born and raised in Uvalde.

After working as the police captain at the United Independent School District in Laredo, Texas, about 140 miles south of Uvalde, Arredondo returned to his hometown in April 2020, when he accepted the position of chief of police for the Uvalde school district, according to the Uvalde Leader-News.

The former chief, Leo Flores, resigned after being arrested on charges of unlawfully carrying a gun in a bar and threatening an officer, the newspaper reported.

 

[MimosaMornings]

I read most of this thread but some things are still unclear to me, mostly about how the gunman managed to get into the classroom. As a person from Europe, maybe I am missing something important about security in the US schools. Can you please help me understand what we know so far?

1. I understand that SR entered Robb Elementary through the unlocked door. But, was it the front door or one of the back ones? It seems really weird to me if the front door had been left completely unsupervised.

2. In an article published on East Idaho News, the 11-year-old survivor describes how the gunman shot out the window in the classroom door, then went in and started shooting to everyone. With the glass window shot out, how is it possible that the police couldn't enter the classroom? Other articles tell that no one could open the door from outside without the key. It seems to make no sense unless I'm missing something important.

Authorities say security video shows the back door of Texas school was propped open by a teacher just before the gunman attacked the school

Police believe the propped-open door was used by the gunman to enter Robb Elementary School on Tuesday.

www.insider.com

An exterior door to the faculty parking lot?

 

[x_files]

Not just "where was the principal", but "where was the security guard"? I've heard reports he was "off site" driving "a vehicle" somewhere. Was he at lunch? Doing personal business? Wherever he was, he wasn't doing his job. He was the only hope. Unless the school admins could have locked down faster, but now it looks like the shooter entered the school very rapidly, within 1 to 2 minutes after he started shooting outside the school

Great question!

 

[airportwoman]

Let's make sure we have the full story before hurling judgment at the officers for not going in. They probably didn't know if he had a bomb, accomplices, etc. and that "going in" would increase the casualty count.

 

[Friday Fan]

Uvalde police chief who delayed officer response to shooting to join City Council

Peter Arredondo, chief since 2020, campaigned on communication and outreach “to those in need,” the local newspaper reported.

www.nbcnews.com

May 27, 2022, 2:04 PM PDT

The Uvalde police chief who made the call not to immediately send officers into Robb Elementary School to confront a gunman was elected to the City’s Council just three weeks ago after running on a platform of communication and outreach to the community.
Peter Arredondo, the chief of police for the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, stopped at least 19 officers from breaking into the school as the gunman opened fire for at least an hour.

Arredondo believed that the shooter had barricaded himself and that the children were not under an active threat, Steven McCraw, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said Friday.

[..]

According to McCraw, Arredondo believed there was no active threat, so instead of sending officers in, he spent time finding keys that would let him into the school. During this time, however, Ramos had unencumbered access to carry out the attack. Nineteen students and two teachers were killed.

Arredondo was not present among law enforcement officials standing with McCraw on Friday, and McCraw did not explicitly name him.

[..]

As the community demands answers and pieces together a shaky and conflicting timeline of events, scrutiny has turned to Arredondo, who was born and raised in Uvalde.

After working as the police captain at the United Independent School District in Laredo, Texas, about 140 miles south of Uvalde, Arredondo returned to his hometown in April 2020, when he accepted the position of chief of police for the Uvalde school district, according to the Uvalde Leader-News.

The former chief, Leo Flores, resigned after being arrested on charges of unlawfully carrying a gun in a bar and threatening an officer, the newspaper reported.

Good grief...this was what is wrong with everything!
Election Day was May 7th
And he probably was gonna stay on as chief at the school district, because both jobs are considered "part time"...
I live in Texas and elected officials often hold other full time jobs. However, the chief of a municipal PD would not be allowed on City Council, but a school district police officer would.

Obviously his job on police chief at the school district allowed him ample time to campaign..
However, this doesn't bother me as much as him being the "incident commander"...School police departments just don't have the training. They do community policing and immediately hand over incidents to the more qualified departments when they arrive on-scene.
I don't have a problem with him being on city council, but I do have a problem with him being the "incident commander" in an active shooting situation. School PD do not have SWAT teams! His job was to provide support, maps, keys and access to other law enforcement. Not run the thing himself!

 

[Arkay]

Texas' Director of Public Safety broke down in tears as he admitted 19 cops stood outside the classroom where the gunman in Tuesday's shooting had his victims trapped and did nothing because they thought everyone inside was dead, despite ongoing 911 calls from inside from children begging for help.

• Nineteen cops stood outside the classroom where the gunman was for over an hour while kids were outside
• They thought that everyone inside was dead - despite ongoing 911 calls from kids inside begging for help
• The shooter fired his last shots at 12.21 and it's unclear if those shots were at the kids or at the door
• 'Clearly in hindsight, it was the wrong decision,' Texas Director of Safety Steven McCraw said on Friday
• The 911 calls from inside the classrooms lasted from continued until 12.50pm, when police killed the gunman
• The kids who were alive and trapped phoned for help seven times unaware that police were outside
• Police will not say how many people were rescued and how many were shot in the time that lapsed
• The gunman fired 100 shots when he first arrived at the school then another 16 shots four minutes later

Texas cops: Uvalde police made 'no effort' to enter shooting classroom

Col. Steven McCgraw cried as he admitted it was the 'clearly the wrong decision'. Police still do not know whether the shooter's victims were killed before or after police arrived at the scene.

www.dailymail.co.uk

According to McCraw, Arredondo believed there was no active threat, so instead of sending officers in, he spent time finding keys that would let him into the school. During this time, however, Ramos had unencumbered access to carry out the attack. Nineteen students and two teachers were killed.

Arredondo was not present among law enforcement officials standing with McCraw on Friday, and McCraw did not explicitly name him.

It is EXCRUCIATING to envision 19 police officers milling outside a classroom door for so long, while 19 children and two teachers were dead or dying within.

Wishful thinking now but each officer could have potentially grabbed each child once they neutralized SR.

How the lines were crossed, the ball was dropped, whatever the reason that Arredondo did not know there was an ACTIVE threat while 911 calls were frantically made by children trapped inside....it is unforgivable.

I fear for him as well, because his inaction cost those children their lives, but he is not the primary cause. THAT is all SR, and I don't wish to see Arredondo become more collateral damage if he feels he can't continue on in life. Maybe lose his job and be forced to live with the guilt, but I fear for the life of anyone who unwittingly did not act when action was imperative.

It is the witting, Salvador Ramos, who is to blame. However, this mistake by the top cop compounded it into the massacre it became.

Jmo

 

[sds71]

A minute-by-minute break timeline of Uvalde school shooting

Here, a minute-by-minute breakdown of how the shooting in Uvalde folded and how police did nothing while waiting for back up because they thought all of the kids in the classroom were dead.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[Friday Fan]

It is EXCRUCIATING to envision 19 police officers milling outside a classroom door for so long, while 19 children and two teachers were dead or dying within.

Wishful thinking now but each officer could have potentially grabbed each child once they neutralized SR.

How the lines were crossed, the ball was dropped, whatever the reason that Arredondo did not know there was an ACTIVE threat while 911 calls were frantically made by children trapped inside....it is unforgivable.

I fear for him as well, because his inaction cost those children their lives, but he is not the primary cause. THAT is all SR, and I don't wish to see Arredondo become more collateral damage if he feels he can't continue on in life. Maybe lose his job and forced to live with the guilt, but I fear for the life of anyone who unwittingly did not act when action was imperative.

It is the witting, Salvador Ramos, who is to blame. However, this mistake by the top cop compounded it into the massacre it became.

Jmo

I'm smelling a bit of a rat here!
Since when does a school PD take control of dangerous active shooter incident???
They are normally only in charge until back up arrives.

 

[Seattle1]

I read most of this thread but some things are still unclear to me, mostly about how the gunman managed to get into the classroom. As a person from Europe, maybe I am missing something important about security in US schools. Can you please help me understand what we know so far?

1. I understand that SR entered Robb Elementary through the unlocked door. But, was it the front door or one of the back ones? It seems really weird to me if the front door had been left completely unsupervised.

2. In an article published on East Idaho News, the 11-year-old survivor describes how the gunman shot out the window in the classroom door, then went in and started shooting to everyone. With the glass window shot out, how is it possible that the police couldn't enter the classroom? Other articles tell that no one could open the door from outside without the key. It seems to make no sense unless I'm missing something important.

From the most recent info today (following McCraw's presser), it appears a teacher propped open the back door when she went out (presumably to her vehicle) to retrieve her phone. Seems she went back inside the school but went out again when she heard the truck crash. It's unknown why she left the door propped open and did not close the door when she re-entered the building.

The classroom doors were retrofitted to prohibit easy entry. It seems the shooter shot the relay glass panel on the interior door to the adjoining classroom which would allow him to reach inside and unlock the classroom door. MOO

Watch: Uvalde, TX police provide update on elementary school massacre | USA TODAY​

 

[Wise Old Owl]

How is it possible he shot the glass out, reached in to PPE. It, yet the police outside in the hallway had to wait for a key to open the door. I have to be missing something.

I've been thinking about this as well. From the surviving children that have spoken up - one said the shooter barricaded the door after he came in - another had said the shooter locked the door (which is also possible if the door had a handle lock that he turned). So, LE would have to reach in through the window to either turn the handle lock or just push down on the handle to open it. If shooter is watching - well that LE is now dead. So that's why I'm thinking they needed a key (could kneel down below window and insert the key and unlock the door).l

Remember an AR will not only pierce body armor but actually just blow right through it. This was such a mess.

 

[x_files]

See my post below. You can bet the tactical team had plenty of weapons and were wearing body armor. Yet Uvalde PD stopped them from going in.

WHY? WHY?

That's the MILION DOLLAR question.

 

[Peppery]

View attachment 346464 You can see by this that the door was a "side door" and it was propped open.

View attachment 346465This is a classroom door - he shot out the window and reached in and opened the door.


Hope this helps.

Do we know for certain it was this style of door? i was imagining something different

 

[Lexiintoronto]

See my post below. You can bet the tactical team had plenty of weapons and were wearing body armor. Yet Uvalde PD stopped them from going in.

WHY? WHY?

The police won’t say if he was on the scene, according to CNN, so my *guess* is that he wasn’t there and not completely in tune to what was happening.

ETA: By ‘he’, we were referring to school district police chief, Pedro "Pete" Arredondo. Police commander made 'wrong decision' not to breach classroom doors during elementary school shooting, official says

 

[steeltowngirl]

Is it plausible to trust that the police did indeed believe everyone was dead? Does anyone remember a story by a boy who said an officer asked "Is anyone in there?", and a girl screamed "Help" and the killer came from the adjoining classroom and shot her? At that point the police rushed in. Am I remembering that sequence correctly? On the other hand, we've heard that they were waiting for the janitor to come with a key. Then they went in.

I recall the story, as it was posted in Newsweek.

Cops Accidentally Got Child Shot While Trying to Stop Texas Shooter—Student

"The cop said: 'Yell if you need help!' And one of the persons in my class said 'help.' The guy overheard and he came in and shot her," said a student.

www.newsweek.com

 

[Wise Old Owl]

Do we know for certain it was this style of door? i was imagining something different

I have been in elementary schools in many different states and this is the basic classroom door. Plus I remember reading that the classroom door had a narrow window. But no, we can't absolutely confirm that this was the type of door.

 

[steeltowngirl]

Let's make sure we have the full story before hurling judgment at the officers for not going in. They probably didn't know if he had a bomb, accomplices, etc. and that "going in" would increase the casualty count.

I’m trying really hard to stand down and wait for the story. I am so stunned by this. I’m from the North and always thought of Texas as being the one place where there were so many good guys with guns that they would be able to overtake the bad guys. Now this…

 

[IzzyBlanche]

Uvalde police asking for protection for Uvalde police.

The May 27 press conference came as several different law enforcement entities from across the state were called in by Uvalde police to not only assist in supplementing their police force, but to also provide extra protection to police and the mayor following heavy criticism and threats linked to their hour-long response time to the Robb Elementary School shooting, according to officials with the Texas Police Chiefs Association.

Link: Texas DPS on Uvalde shooting: 'It was the wrong decision,' not to breach classroom

 

[bestill]

A minute-by-minute break timeline of Uvalde school shooting

Here, a minute-by-minute breakdown of how the shooting in Uvalde folded and how police did nothing while waiting for back up because they thought all of the kids in the classroom were dead.

www.dailymail.co.uk

View attachment 346468

I am asking the question, the teacher props a door open 5 mins before a shooter enters and why did that teacher do that?? This is really incredible.

 

[bestill]

I’m trying really hard to stand down and wait for the story. I am so stunned by this. I’m from the North and always thought of Texas as being the one place where there were so many good guys with guns that they would be able to overtake the bad guys. Now this…

Me too. I never expected this and have so many questions.