2022 — May 24, Robb Elementary School shooting (19 students 2 teachers killed) Uvalde TX-21

–21 CNN. “‘We’re in trouble.’ 80 minutes of horror at Robb Elementary School.” 5-29-2022.

Narrative Information

May 29, CNN: “Two days before the end of the academic year the students of Robb Elementary School wore their Sunday best for a “Footloose and Fancy” event — a prelude to a long-awaited summer of drive-in movies, lakeside barbecues and trips to amusement parks.

“Tuesday morning, as 10-year-old fourth graders like Xavier Javier Lopez and Alexandria “Lexi” Rubio received honor roll certificates and other awards, a bullied loner named Salvador Ramos was home with his grandmother in Uvalde, a small, tight-knit Texas town nestled roughly midway between San Antonio and the border with Mexico.

“Within hours…[they] would cross paths with the high school dropout who gifted himself two AR-15 style rifles and hundreds of rounds of ammunition he legally purchased for his 18th birthday one week earlier.

“At 11:33 a.m. Ramos entered the school, unimpeded, through a rear door that a teacher had left propped open. He fired more than 100 rounds in the school and two adjoining classrooms. A Border Patrol tactical team fatally shot him more than an hour after the terror began.

“The massacre claimed the lives of 19 children and two teachers in the deadliest US school shooting in nearly a decade. Haunting details emerged almost daily. A father gathered with other distraught parents outside the school. He pleaded with officers for gear so he confront the gunman himself. An 11-year-old survivor played dead after smearing herself with her friend’s blood. The gunman looked one teacher in the eye. “Goodnight,” he said coldly before killing her.

“Grieving parents planned funerals as they seethed over the delayed response. Law enforcement officials for days offered conflicting explanations. A public safety department colonel admitted Friday that waiting in a school hallway while trapped students made 911 calls was the “wrong decision” by the commanding officer at the scene. It’s not clear how many lives the mistake may have cost.

“Uvalde’s nearly 16,000 working-class, mostly Latino residents are now the latest mourners in an eerily familiar American tragedy.

“Ramos, who had no criminal record, had few friends and largely kept to himself. In the weeks leading up to the massacre, he exhibited a dark side in livestreams on the social media app Yubo. Several users who witnessed the recent videos said he told girls he would rape them, showed off a rifle he bought, and threatened to shoot up schools. They didn’t take him seriously until now.

“At about 11 a.m. on Tuesday he called a 15-year-old girl in Germany. He had befriended her earlier this month on the social media app. The young man and the teen from Frankfurt spoke daily on FaceTime. They also communicated on Yubo and played and chatted on the Plato gaming app. He was curious about life in Germany. He confessed to spending a lot of time alone at home. “He looked happy and comfortable talking to me,” said the girl, whose mother gave permission for her to be interviewed.

“Still, some chats alarmed her. He admitted hurling dead cats at houses. And he never mentioned plans to meet friends…. On Monday, Ramos told the girl he had received a package of bullets that expanded upon entering tissue. Why? she asked. “Just wait for it,” he said, ominously.

“The next day, in the call just after 11 on the morning of the shootings, he told the girl he loved her.

“Screen shots of messages Ramos sent soon after the call show he complained that his grandmother had contacted AT&T about “my phone.” “It’s annoying,” he wrote. At 11:06 a.m. came a chilling message: “I just shot my grandma in her head.”

“His final text to his new online friend was at 11:21 a.m. local time — then early evening in Germany: “Ima go shoot up” an elementary school.

“With days left in the school year, the second- through fourth-graders of Robb Elementary collected their awards Tuesday morning….

“Less than a mile away, Ramos — after shooting his 66-year-old grandmother in the face and texting his German friend one last time — drove a pickup to the school campus and crashed the truck in a ditch. It was 11:28 a.m. local time.

“He opened fire on two people outside a funeral home across the street but did not hit them. His grandmother managed to call 911. She was airlifted to a hospital in San Antonio and is expected to survive….

“Within minutes, Ramos made his way from the road to the school parking lot and began firing at classroom windows. Moments before he pulled open the building’s unlocked rear door, a school safety officer in a patrol car drove right by the gunman, who had hunkered down behind a car.

“At 11:33 a.m. Ramos moved down a hallway and into one of two adjoining classrooms — 111 and 112. At no time since crashing the truck did police confront him.

“Minutes later, seven officers arrived at the school. Three officers approached the locked classroom where the gunman had now barricaded himself. Two officers were shot from behind a door and suffered graze wounds.

“A barrage of more than 100 rounds echoed through the halls of Robb Elementary in the slaughter’s first minutes. It was at least the 30th school shooting at a K-12 school this year.

“Miah Cerrillo, 11, was watching the Disney movie with classmates. Alerted to a shooter in the building, teachers Eva Mireles and Irma Garcia moved to protect their young charges. When one teacher tried to lock the classroom door, the gunman shot out a door window. The teacher backpedaled and the gunman followed her. He said “Goodnight,” then shot her. He turned and opened fire on the other teacher and Miah’s classmates….

“Between rounds, the shooter played music…

“At one point Miah [Cerrillo, 11] and a classmate managed to use the phone of their dead teacher to call 911. “Please come,” she told the dispatcher. “We’re in trouble.”

“Around the time students started making 911 calls as many as 19 law enforcement officers had already taken cover in the hallway, at 12:03 p.m. They took no action and waited for classroom keys and tactical equipment.

“At 12:16 p.m. a girl who made several 911 calls told a dispatcher that eight or nine children were alive in her classroom.

“”The on-scene commander at that time believed that it had transitioned from an active shooter to a barricaded subject,” Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) Col. Steven McCraw said on Friday, describing the call not to confront the shooter as “the wrong decision, period.” “There’s no excuse for that,” he added.

“The official who made the decision not to breach the classroom was the school district police chief, Pedro “Pete” Arredondo, who has not spoken publicly since two very brief press statements on the day of the shootings. He has three decades of law enforcement experience. There was no response to attempts to reach Arredondo at his home on Friday.

“Before the end of the noontime hour on Tuesday, at least 10 911 calls were made from classrooms, including several from the same girl pleading for help. She whispered at one point that multiple bodies surrounded her in Room 112.

“Amerie Jo Garza turned 10 years old weeks before the attack. She got her first cell phone as a gift. Classmates would later tell her stepfather, med aide Angel Garza, that she was killed while trying to call 911.

“During the siege, some responding officers helped evacuate students and teachers in other parts of the school.

“Frustrated parents gathered outside during the rampage. They urged officers holding them back to storm the school to stop the bloodshed. One parent, Victor Luna, pleaded with officers to give him their gear. His son Jayden survived the shooting but he didn’t know that at the time….Video from the scene showed officers physically restraining some parents…..

“Xavier and Lexi, the honor roll students, were among the victims. As were teachers Mireles and Garcia, who had taught together for five years. Two days after Garcia’s death, her husband, Joe, suffered a fatal heart attack. Their relatives said he died of a broken heart.

“Other young victims were José Flores Jr., 10, and Eliana “Ellie” Garcia, who was 9. Nevaeh Alyssa Bravo was 10. Jacklyn Jaylen Cazares, 10, was killed along with her 10-year-old cousin and classmate Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez. There was Makenna Lee Elrod, 10; Uziyah Garcia, 10; Jayce Carmelo Luevanos, 10; Tess Marie Mata, 10; Maranda Mathis, 11; Alithia Ramirez, 10; Maite Rodriguez, 10; Layla Salazar, 11; Jailah Nicole Silguero, 10; Eliahana ‘Elijah’ Cruz Torres, 10; and Rogelio Torres, 10.

“Nearly 20 people were injured in the attack with a rifle that has been used in some of the most notorious and deadly mass killings in recent history.

“The AR-15 style rifle was engineered to maximize its kill rate by raking enemy soldiers with high-velocity rounds. The original designers explained that the speed of the impact causes the bullet to tumble after it penetrates tissue. The result: Catastrophic injuries.

“”We were treating destructive wounds and what that means is that there were large areas of tissue missing from the body,” said Dr. Lillian Liao, pediatric trauma medical director at University Hospital in San Antonio, which treated three children from Uvalde. “They required emergency surgery because there was significant blood loss.”

“It was hard knowing many victims were likely already dead by the time police killed the shooter….

“In all, 80 minutes elapsed between the time officers were first called at 11:30 a.m. to the moment a federal tactical team entered locked classrooms and killed the gunman at 12:50 p.m….

“After waiting about 35 minutes outside the classroom, a US Border Patrol tactical team used a key to open a door. They had been at the school since 12:15 p.m. The teenage gunman kicked open the door of a classroom closet and opened fire, said a source familiar with the situation. One agent held a shield. At least two others behind him engaged the shooter…. The siege was over….” (CNN (Ray Sanchez). “‘We’re in trouble.’ 80 minutes of horror at Robb Elementary School.” 5-29-2022.)

Sources

CNN (Ray Sanchez). “‘We’re in trouble.’ 80 minutes of horror at Robb Elementary School.” 5-29-2022. Accessed 5-30-2022 at: https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/29/us/uvalde-texas-elementary-school-shooting-week/index.html