An Uvalde police officer armed with a rifle requested to shoot Salvador Ramos outside Robb Elementary School on May 24 just before the 18-year-old gunman launched the massacre, it was revealed on Wednesday.
The officer’s supervisor either did not hear the request or responded too late to open fire on Ramos, allowing the shooter to enter the building where he killed 19 children and two teachers, according to the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center.
The incident was among the biggest missed opportunities to stop or kill the Uvalde gunman before he entered the school, according to a report by a Texas law enforcement group.
“The officer turned to get confirmation from his supervisor and when he turned back to address the suspect, (the gunman) had already entered the west hallway unabated,” said the report.
About 32 seconds after the officer failed to shoot, the gunman made his way into classroom 111.
“Immediately, children’s screams could be heard along with numerous gunshots in the classroom,” said the report.
Another missed opportunity came when a Uvalde school district police officer headed to the school in response to a gunman. The officer drove right by the rifle-carrying Ramos because he was driving at a high rate of speed, the report says.
The law enforcement response to the school shooting has been criticized and is under investigation by multiple law enforcement agencies, including the Justice Department. Much of the blame has been assigned to the school district police chief, Pete Arredondo, who was the incident commander.
The lead investigator into the shooting, the Texas Department of Public Safety, has said much of the responsibility falls on Arredondo for delaying officers over an hour to enter the classroom with dying teachers and students.
“The only thing stopping a hallway of dedicated officers from entering room 111 and 112 was the on-scene commander who decided to place the lives of officers before the lives of children,” Texas DPS Director Steve McCraw told a special Texas Senate committee about Arrendondo last month.
Arredondo denies that he was the incident commander, although the law enforcement largely disagrees with him. Arredondo has been placed on administrative leave by the school district and recently resigned from the Uvalde City Council after refusing to show up at any public meetings since the shooting and pressure from residents to resign.
