Police didn't try to open doors to classrooms with Uvalde shooter inside: Source
Source: ABC7ny
UVALDE, Texas -- In a new twist in the Uvalde elementary school mass shooting, a source has confirmed to ABC News that as police waited for more than an hour in a hallway outside the classrooms where a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers, none of the officers checked to see if the doors to the classrooms were locked.
The new development in the investigation of the shooting came just days after Chief Pete Arredondo of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police, the incident commander during the May 24 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School, defended his actions and claimed the delay in breaching connecting classrooms 111 and 112, where the gunman was holed up was because he was waiting for a janitor to get the key to the door.
But surveillance footage showed that neither Arredondo nor any other officers taking cover in the hallway outside the classrooms ever attempted to open the door before receiving the keys to the two connecting classrooms. That means there were 77 minutes between when the alleged 18-year-old gunman entered the school through an unlocked door and when police fatally shot him, a source with knowledge of the investigation told ABC News.
Read more: https://abc7ny.com/texas-school-shooting-uvalde-police-classroom-doors-shooter/11980828/
Also, on June 6 there was a story reporting that another teacher in Rm 111 (one of the pair of adjoining rooms) had previously complained that the locks on the classroom door didn't work.
https://abc7.com/uvalde-teacher-police-response-arnulfo-reyes-texas-school-shooting/11935283/
"There was no announcement. I did not receive any messages on my phone -- sometimes we do get a Raptor system," he said, referring to the school district's emergency alert program, "but I didn't get anything, and I didn't hear anything."
Reyes also described complaints he said he had made about his door, which is meant to remain shut and locked while class is in session. At prior security checks, Reyes said he noticed that his door would not latch -- an issue he said he raised with the school's principal.
"When that would happen, I would tell my principal, 'Hey, I'm going to get in trouble again, they're going to come and tell you that I left my door unlocked, which I didn't,'" he said. "But the latch was stuck. So, it was just an easy fix."
Torchlight
(6,592 posts)It started off pretty bad initially, but every time they try to do damage control, they just keep digging in deep and deeper.
Lil Liberal Laura
(228 posts)
ret5hd
(22,389 posts)A brave woman leading the charge
Heck, I think a remake is in the offing
The Piss Yellow Road
calimary
(89,434 posts)pwb
(12,571 posts)when there is a school shooting they could hand them out to the parents. The guy would be dead in minutes then.
thesquanderer
(12,932 posts)Simply... the moms care a whole lot more about the outcome than the cops do.
calimary
(89,434 posts)I'd have counted myself among them when mine were still young enough to be living at home and not driving yet.
appalachiablue
(43,952 posts)IronLionZion
(51,040 posts)I thought cops had bulletproof vests and military style body armor
PJMcK
(24,929 posts)Then the town can hire professionals.
These cops were cowardly hacks.
LudwigPastorius
(14,430 posts)
Initech
(108,164 posts)All it would do is trap people further. Explain that one, gun nuts.
purr-rat beauty
(1,137 posts)No student, teacher, administrator, custodian, or parent should open a door to schools next school year until something is done to kerp everyone safe.
Shit
Let's all go on strike
ck4829
(37,536 posts)Lasher
(29,485 posts)Which might have been unlocked because it was defective.
Aussie105
(7,743 posts)White cops, Latino school, Latino kids?
Notice none of the cops had kids at that school? (From what I read.)
Besides, Bad Man with a Loud Gun in there. Scary! Not worth the risk, perhaps?
Yes, I might be cynical. Then again . . .
pnwmom
(110,227 posts)and the cop helped his or her kid get out.
LeftInTX
(34,031 posts)Police force is almost all Latino
Aussie105
(7,743 posts)Sad all round.
Even sadder is that it will happen again.
LeftInTX
(34,031 posts)He was at the scene too.
Lasher
(29,485 posts)So much sadness.
Eugene
(66,976 posts)Source: Associated Press
Report: Police in Uvalde had rifles earlier than known
June 21, 2022
UVALDE, Texas (AP) Multiple police officers armed with rifles and at least one ballistic shield stood and waited in a school hallway for nearly an hour while a gunman carried out a massacre of 19 elementary students and two teachers, according to a Monday news report that marks the latest embarrassing revelation about the failure of law enforcement to thwart the attack.
The officers with heavier firepower and tactical equipment were there within 19 minutes of the gunman arriving on campus earlier than previously known, according to documents reviewed by the Austin American-Statesman and KVUE-TV.
The outlets report, which did not indicate the source of the documents, nevertheless intensifies the anguish and questions over why police didnt act sooner to stop the May 24 slaughter in the Robb Elementary School classroom.
The information is to be presented to a public Texas Senate hearing in Austin on Tuesday. Investigators say the latest information indicates officers had more than enough firepower and protection to take down the gunman long before they finally did, the outlets reported.
-snip-
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/politics-texas-law-enforcement-agencies-shootings-police-601af4d0115ffd6d7b95ff9d1d82f37a
Lasher
(29,485 posts)Meaning it was likely unlocked for the duration of the shooting. But nobody even tried to open the door.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/key-takeaways-texas-senates-hearing-uvalde-shooting/story?id=85541383