New report: Uvalde police had rifles, ballistic shield, tool to open door but waited an hour to confront the gunman

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• New surveillance footage showed Uvalde officers were armed with two rifles and a ballistic shield but still didn’t confront the gunman. 
• Several armed officers waited for over an hour before entering the classroom where the gunman was.
• The new evidence contradicts earlier reports that Uvalde school district police Chief Pete Arredondo was waiting for tactical gear and a protective shield to confront the gunman.

New evidence reveals that several police officers were armed with rifles and a ballistic shield inside Robb Elementary School about 19 minutes after the gunman entered the school. However, the Uvalde officers still waited nearly an hour to breach the classroom where the gunman was shooting the victims.

Austin American Statesman and KVUE included the new details in reports on Monday. The botched police response has been controversial days after the May 24 mass shooting.

Surveillance footage from inside the school showed the armed officers standing inside a hallway at 11:52 a.m. after shooter Salvador Ramos entered the school at 11:33 a.m. through an exterior door that did not automatically lock.

The new evidence contradicts earlier reports that Uvalde school district police Chief Pete Arredondo, was waiting for tactical gear and a protective shield to confront the gunman. Arredondo was in charge of the police response.

“There were 19 officers in there,” Col. Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said at a media briefing days after the mass shooting. “In fact, there were plenty of officers to do whatever needed to be done, with one exception — the incident commander inside believed they needed more equipment and more officers to do a tactical breach at that point.”

School security footage as well as police body camera video shows the officers had enough firepower and protection to take out the gunman much sooner than they did, according to the Statesman.

The first officer with a ballistic shield who entered the school questioned why they weren’t attempting to enter the classroom. “If there’s kids in there, we need to go in there,” the officer says in body cam footage.

KVUE reported that at 12:03 p.m., an officer with another shield arrives, followed by a third two minutes later.

After attempting to talk with Ramos, Arredondo told the SWAT officers who arrived that they should breach the classroom door as soon as they were ready at 12:46 p.m. The police finally busted into the classroom four minutes later and fatally shot Ramos.

According to Arredondo, the delay was based on his attempts to find keys to unlock the classroom door. It was not determined if it was locked. Police did not check or try to open it, despite having access to a Halligan tool which could have broken the lock, the San Antonio Express News reported.

Arredondo said he tried dozens of keys and told officers to wait for a tactical team when none of the keys worked, the report said.

Source: The Hill