Uvalde Cops Never Tried to Open Door to Save Kids From Shooter in 77 Minutes, Says Report

Two teachers and 19 students were killed at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, making it the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history. The 18-year-old shooter was shot dead by border patrol agents who stormed the classroom. According to Insider, local police wouldn't let a tactical squad of federal agents immediately go into the school to stop the gunman. They had to wait nearly an hour to respond because the on-scene commander believed the risk to the children was over. Eventually, Border Patrol officials entered the classroom and shot the gunman after disregarding instructions from local cops. 

A deeply disturbed Marfa police Chief Estevan Marquez told The Texas Tribune, “I keep telling my officers, ‘I don't want to ever have to go through that. I don't want you guys to ever just be standing around when innocent children are being shot in the school, in the classroom.'” Since the infamous 1999 shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado which left 12 students and a teacher dead, officers are instructed to immediately confront shooters per active-shooter training. The point of active-shooter training is “to increase the probability that you perform well during a crisis,” said Pete Blair, Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training program or ALERRT’s executive director. “The hope is, even if initially it’s a shock to you and you freeze up, that you fall back on your training,” he said. “The best we can do is give you training to try to prepare you mentally and physically for the situation.” But training “doesn’t guarantee” that officers will perform well when they’re under fire.

So what happened at Uvalde? A new report states that Uvalde police officers waiting outside a pair of the school classrooms, where kids and teachers were trapped with a gunman, didn’t try to open the door to save them, according to VICE News. A law enforcement source told San Antonio Express-News that surveillance footage shows that cops did not try to open the door that led to the classrooms even once in 77 minutes. Cops said the gunman had locked the door and they were waiting for the keys. Nineteen officials waited in the hallway outside the connecting classrooms. The insider told the outlet that the doors are designed to lock automatically once closed but officers just assumed that they were locked and didn't try opening the doors. They also said the cops had access to a tool called a “halligan” that could have crowbarred a locked door open. A young 11-year-old girl who survived the massacre broke down, as she told CNN she didn't understand why they didn't come inside and rescue them. The fourth-grader had to pretend to be dead so the gunman wouldn't kill her. Miah Cerrillo sobbed as she said she can't understand why the police didn't come sooner. She is hoping that sharing her story of survival might lead to some sort of effective change.

References:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/dy7z5z/uvalde-cops-never-tried-to-open-door-to-save-kids-from-shooter-report

https://www.texastribune.org/2022/06/13/uvalde-school-shooting-texas-police-training/

https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Uvalde-classroom-doors-17251116.php

https://www.insider.com/uvalde-survivor-called-911-cant-understand-why-police-didnt-come-2022-5

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/05/27/us/robb-shooting-survivor-miah-cerrillo/index.html

Cover Image Source: Photo by Brandon Bell | Getty Images