Days after the United States was plunged into shock amid mass shooting horror at an elementary school, a Texas police official has said that the local police made the “wrong decision” by waiting nearly an hour to go inside the school. An18-year-old had opened fire and killed 19 students and two teachers. While students trapped inside a classroom with a gunman repeatedly called 911, the police waited to breach the classroom, said authorities, news agency AP reported.
The commander at the scene – the school district’s police chief – had reportedly thought that the gunman was barricaded inside the adjoining classrooms and that children were no longer at risk. The commander has said that “it was a wrong decision”.
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As per reports, the gunman, identified as Salvador Ramos, reached the school with an AR-15-style rifle at 11:28 am. Ramos entered the school five minutes later and found his way to the fourth-grade classroom where he killed the 21 victims.
According to the authorities, the police followed Ramos into the building within two minutes. As many as 19 officers gathered in the school’s hallway within the next half an hour. However, the police did not breach the door for the next 47 minutes. It was not until around 12:50 pm that the police killed the gunman.
Throughout the attack, teachers and children repeatedly called 911 asking for help, reported AP, quoting the commander. Meanwhile, young survivors of the attack said that they pretended to be dead while waiting for help.
The US witnessed one of the worst mass shootings this week when Ramos opened fire, killing 19 children and two teachers. The gruesome killing took place at a Texas elementary school in the heavily Latino town of Uvalde.
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Ramos reportedly had an argument with his grandmother and shot at and injured her critically on May 24. After shooting her, he drove his car to Robb Elementary School and opened fire there. The accused was later killed by the police.
The shooting is the deadliest in the United States since 20 children and six staff members were fatally shot at the Sandy Hook school in Newtown, Connecticut on December 14, 2012.
(With inputs from AP)