A huge collection of audio and video recordings, including an emergency call related to the Shooting in May 2022 at Robb Elementary School were released by Uvalde authorities on Saturday following a lengthy legal battle. This was the result of a court settlement with major news outlets, including CBS News, after authorities initially refused to make the information public.
“Maybe he could listen to me, because he listens to me. He listens to everything I tell him,” the man who identified himself as Armando Ramos, the shooter’s uncle, said in the 911 call. “Maybe he could back off or do something to turn himself in,” Ramos said, his voice breaking.
The caller told the dispatcher that the shooter, identified as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, had been at his home the night before. Armando Ramos told the dispatcher that his nephew had stayed with him in his bedroom all night and told him he was upset because his grandmother was “annoying” him.
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“Oh my God, please, please don’t do anything stupid,” says the man on the phone. “I think he’s shooting children.”
The call came in around 1 p.m. on May 24, 2022, about 10 minutes after the shooting stopped. Salvador Ramos was shot and killed by authorities at 12:50 p.m. He had entered the school at 11:33 a.m., officials said.
Uvalde City authorities released nearly 600 documents, including videos from police dashboards and body cameras, emergency calls, non-emergency calls, and documents and text messages.
Fourth graders Khloe Torreswho survived the shooting made several calls to 911, pleading for help. He whispered into the phone that there were “a lot” of bodies and told the operator, “Please, I don’t want to die. My teacher is dead. Oh, my God.”
At some point, the operator asks Khloie if there are many people in the room with her. “No, just me and a few friends. A lot of people are gone,” she says, pausing briefly.
The delayed Law enforcement response – nearly 400 officers waited more than 70 minutes before confronting the gunman in a classroom full of dead and injured children and teachers – was widely condemned as a massive failureThe Uvalde massacre was one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history.
Multiple federal and state investigations into law enforcement’s slow response revealed cascading problems in training, communications, leadership and technology, raising questions about whether officers in the South Texas city of about 15,000 residents 80 miles west of San Antonio put their own lives ahead of those of children and teachers. Families of the victims have long been looking for an explanation for the slow response of the police.
Two of the responding officers now threatened with criminal charges: Former Uvalde School Police Chief Pete Arredondo and former school officer Adrian Gonzales have pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of child abandonment and endangerment. A suspended Uvalde, Texas, state trooper was reinstated to duty earlier this month.
The newly released footage shows Arredondo, who was released in August 2022at the school during the chaos of the shooting.
“Whatever the problem is getting into the damn room, it’s locked, he’s got an AR-15 and he’s shooting… he stopped,” Arredondo says into his cellphone in a school hallway.
Asked whether the police response to the shooting was cowardly, Arredondo responded in a CNN interview this week: “I completely disagree with that, and again, opinions differ, sir, and they will, but I can tell you that probably 100 percent of these people have never been in a situation like this before.”
Some of the families called for the indictment of additional officials and filed federal and state lawsuits against law enforcement agencies, social media, online gaming companies and the gun manufacturer that made the shooter’s rifle.
The Police reaction They included nearly 150 U.S. Border Patrol agents and 91 state troopers, as well as school and city police officers. While dozens of officers stood in the hallway trying to decide what to do, students in the classroom used their cellphones to call 911, begging for help, and desperate parents gathered outside the building begged officers to go inside. Eventually, a response team entered the classroom and killed the gunman.
Previously released videos from school cameras showed police officers, some armed with rifles and bulletproof shields, waiting in the hallway.
However, a report commissioned by the city defends the actions of the local police, saying that the officers showed “immeasurable strength” and “level-headed thinking” when they confronted the shooter’s fire and refrained from shooting into a dark classroom.
