pcosmar
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I don't buy AJs crap.
TX - 21 Dead, Dozens Injured in Texas Elementary School Shooting
- Thread starter Anti Federalist
- Start date
I don't buy AJs crap.
Anti Globalist
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Shouldn't McConaughey have given this speech in front of the Uvalde police department?
TheTexan
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Despite my better judgement, I tried to watch this... and I don't have a single fucking clue what this guy's point was
ClaytonB
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osan
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Bingo and give the man a cigar.
Cops are the result of our generalized corruption. We don't want responsibility for ourselves, so we pawn that shit off onto others, and with it our liberties.
WE are the root of all our problems. We are our own worst enemies.
osan
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Good on a good mama for giving the Man her finger and getting it done.
As for hope, no, not really. Not at these low numbers. We need this sort of defiance going on millions of times per hour. Force Theire hands, either to stand down or escalate. Either way would do, though there is a certain appeal in the thought of sending home a good 100K of Theire useful idiots home in ziplocks.
ClaytonB
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You don't have to. Alex Jones is controlled-opp (he seems unwilling, but the harness is quite effective). These events are staged in the sense that they are not "just happening". How staged are they? Well, that's anybody's guess... they're supremely skilled at lying and covering their tracks, that's for sure. But they are not just organically happening.
In the Middle East, there are bounty programs for individuals willing to commit a suicide bombing. Those programs exist, whether you can name the mullahs who are running them or not. And when a suicide bombing occurs, you can be sure that the existence of these programs played a role in it, whether directly or indirectly. And it is no different here in the US. Yes, the dark forces that are staging these events are careful to wipe their fingerprints and cover their tracks with every single step they take. They are Professor Moriarty-level meticulous. But they exist and their actions are playing a role in these news events as surely as the sun rises in the morning. And you don't have to buy in to Alex Jones' shape-shifting demon-lizard aliens to believe that...
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Uvalde shooting incident commander says he didn't know he was in charge, ditched his radios on purpose
UCISD Police Chief Pete Arredondo says he intentionally left his issued communications devices outside Robb Elementary before entering the school in pursuit of shooter Salvador Ramos.
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-...g-police-response-Pete-Arredondo-17233003.php
Dan Carson (10 June 2022)
After two weeks of silence punctuated by allegations of non-cooperation, Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo offered his account of the events inside Robb Elementary on May 24, which saw 18-year-old Salvador Ramos use an assault rifle to kill 19 students and two teachers over the course of an hour while responding officers waited for resources.
Arredondo told the Texas Tribune's James Barragan and Zach Despart that he dropped his police and campus radios outside the school seconds after arriving at the northeast entrance of Robb Elementary, stating that he believed the tools would slow him down while responding to the shooter. Arredondo said that one of the radios had a "whiplike antenna" that would hit his side as he ran. Another he claimed was likely to fall off his tactical belt.
"My mind was to get there as fast as possible, eliminate any threats, and protect students and staff," Arredondo told the Tribune.
The chief pinned the blame for the 77-minute span between his arrival at the school and the elimination of Ramos primarily on officers' inability to find the correct key to the door of the classroom in which the shooter had locked himself. Over the course of the attack, he says he was given two different key rings to try.
"Each time I tried a key I was just praying," Arredondo said. However, few elements of Arredondo's version of events at Robb Elementary that day have been confirmed by other officers and personnel in the hallway with him.
The Tribune's report includes claims from the police chief that he had no idea he was in charge of the police response inside the school. Arredondo denied previous reports from The New York Times that stated the group of officers that ultimately killed Ramos had been ordered to stand down before making their move against the shooter. The chief claims he did not tell these officers to stand down.
"I didn't issue any orders," Arredondo told the Tribune. "I called for assistance and asked for an extraction tool to open the door."
According to Arredondo, the classroom door had a steel jamb that could not be forced open, and he focused on evacuating students in other classrooms while waiting for keys to the room. He says he ordered officers to shatter windows from the outside and extract those inside. Arredondo's attorney, George E. Hyde, who is not an expert with regard to mass shootings, told the Tribune that attempting to use a similar window tactic to engage the shooter in the locked classroom would've been "reckless" and "guaranteed all the children in the rooms would be killed."
This conflicts with comments offered by FBI Agent Katherine Schweit, one of the bureau's chief researchers on mass shootings, who told the Tribune that going through a window is proper police protocol during an active shooter event.
"The training that police officers have received for more than a decade mandates that when shots are fired in an active-shooter situation, officers or an officer needs to continue through whatever obstacles they face to get to the shooter, period," Schweit told the Tribune. "If that means they go through walls, or go around the back through windows, or through an adjoining classroom, they do that."
A New York Times report filed Thursday stated that "more than a dozen" of the 33 children and three teachers originally in the conjoined classrooms occupied by the shooter remained alive during the hour and 17-minute span between the beginning of the shooting and officers' entry into the classroom. One teacher shot by Ramos died while being transported to the hospital, the Times notes, and three children who were extracted from the classroom later died at the hospital from their injuries.
A Times analysis of surveillance footage in the building found that officers didn’t return to the classroom door for 40 minutes after first arriving and attempting to enter the classroom. By the time the room was breached by law enforcement, 60 officers had assembled at Robb Elementary, according to the Times.
UCISD Police Chief Pete Arredondo says he intentionally left his issued communications devices outside Robb Elementary before entering the school in pursuit of shooter Salvador Ramos.
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-...g-police-response-Pete-Arredondo-17233003.php
Dan Carson (10 June 2022)
After two weeks of silence punctuated by allegations of non-cooperation, Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo offered his account of the events inside Robb Elementary on May 24, which saw 18-year-old Salvador Ramos use an assault rifle to kill 19 students and two teachers over the course of an hour while responding officers waited for resources.
Arredondo told the Texas Tribune's James Barragan and Zach Despart that he dropped his police and campus radios outside the school seconds after arriving at the northeast entrance of Robb Elementary, stating that he believed the tools would slow him down while responding to the shooter. Arredondo said that one of the radios had a "whiplike antenna" that would hit his side as he ran. Another he claimed was likely to fall off his tactical belt.
"My mind was to get there as fast as possible, eliminate any threats, and protect students and staff," Arredondo told the Tribune.
The chief pinned the blame for the 77-minute span between his arrival at the school and the elimination of Ramos primarily on officers' inability to find the correct key to the door of the classroom in which the shooter had locked himself. Over the course of the attack, he says he was given two different key rings to try.
"Each time I tried a key I was just praying," Arredondo said. However, few elements of Arredondo's version of events at Robb Elementary that day have been confirmed by other officers and personnel in the hallway with him.
The Tribune's report includes claims from the police chief that he had no idea he was in charge of the police response inside the school. Arredondo denied previous reports from The New York Times that stated the group of officers that ultimately killed Ramos had been ordered to stand down before making their move against the shooter. The chief claims he did not tell these officers to stand down.
"I didn't issue any orders," Arredondo told the Tribune. "I called for assistance and asked for an extraction tool to open the door."
According to Arredondo, the classroom door had a steel jamb that could not be forced open, and he focused on evacuating students in other classrooms while waiting for keys to the room. He says he ordered officers to shatter windows from the outside and extract those inside. Arredondo's attorney, George E. Hyde, who is not an expert with regard to mass shootings, told the Tribune that attempting to use a similar window tactic to engage the shooter in the locked classroom would've been "reckless" and "guaranteed all the children in the rooms would be killed."
This conflicts with comments offered by FBI Agent Katherine Schweit, one of the bureau's chief researchers on mass shootings, who told the Tribune that going through a window is proper police protocol during an active shooter event.
"The training that police officers have received for more than a decade mandates that when shots are fired in an active-shooter situation, officers or an officer needs to continue through whatever obstacles they face to get to the shooter, period," Schweit told the Tribune. "If that means they go through walls, or go around the back through windows, or through an adjoining classroom, they do that."
A New York Times report filed Thursday stated that "more than a dozen" of the 33 children and three teachers originally in the conjoined classrooms occupied by the shooter remained alive during the hour and 17-minute span between the beginning of the shooting and officers' entry into the classroom. One teacher shot by Ramos died while being transported to the hospital, the Times notes, and three children who were extracted from the classroom later died at the hospital from their injuries.
A Times analysis of surveillance footage in the building found that officers didn’t return to the classroom door for 40 minutes after first arriving and attempting to enter the classroom. By the time the room was breached by law enforcement, 60 officers had assembled at Robb Elementary, according to the Times.
ClaytonB
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Reporters trying to cover the next phases of the "story" are being threatened with arrest, blocked from viewing funeral processions by firetrucks and biker groups, families being directed not to speak with any media, etc. Definitely tracks with the Sandy Hook blackout of news after the "official story" was disseminated and finalized by legacy media. Article is very worth a read.
https://www.poynter.org/reporting-e...ng-stonewalling-journalists-reporters-uvalde/
https://www.poynter.org/reporting-e...ng-stonewalling-journalists-reporters-uvalde/
local reporter said:
Last edited:
Invisible Man
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How does keeping them out of the actual funerals prevent them from being able to learn facts about the story though? They ought to be able to do their investigations without interfering with funerals.
GlennwaldSnowdenAssanged
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That's all you took away from reading that entire write-up?
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https://twitter.com/jason_koebler/status/1537838456654573569
Uvalde Hires Private Law Firm to Argue It Doesn’t Have to Release School Shooting Public Records
Some of the records relating to the Robb Elementary School shooting could be “highly embarrassing,” involve “emotional/mental distress,” and are “not of legitimate concern to the public,” the lawyers argued.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/88q...ave-to-release-school-shooting-public-records
Jason Koebler (17 June 2022)
The City of Uvalde and its police department are working with a private law firm to prevent the release of nearly any record related to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in which 19 children and two teachers died, according to a letter obtained by Motherboard in response to a series of public information requests we made. The public records Uvalde is trying to suppress include body camera footage, photos, 911 calls, emails, text messages, criminal records, and more.
“The City has not voluntarily released any information to a member of the public,” the city’s lawyer, Cynthia Trevino, who works for the private law firm Denton Navarro Rocha Bernal & Zech, wrote in a letter to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. The city wrote the letter asking Paxton for a determination about what information it is required to release to the public, which is standard practice in Texas. Paxton's office will eventually rule which of the city's arguments have merit and will determine which, if any, public records it is required to release.
The letter makes clear, however, that the city and its police department want to be exempted from releasing a wide variety of records in part because it is being sued, in part because some of the records could include “highly embarrassing information,” in part because some of the information is “not of legitimate concern to the public,” in part because the information could reveal “methods, techniques, and strategies for preventing and predicting crime,” in part because some of the information may cause or may "regard … emotional/mental distress," and in part because its response to the shooting is being investigated by the Texas Rangers, the FBI, and the Uvalde County District Attorney.
The letter explains that Uvalde has at least one in-house attorney (whose communications it is trying to prevent from public release), and yet, it is using outside private counsel to deal with a matter of extreme importance and public interest. Uvalde’s city government and its police department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Motherboard.
The city says that it has received 148 separate public records requests (including several from Motherboard), and has lumped all of them together, making a broad legal argument as to why it should not be required to respond to many of them. Earlier this week, Motherboard reported on a similar letter sent to Paxton by the Texas Department of Public Safety, which wanted to suppress body-camera footage because it could expose “weaknesses” in police response to crimes that criminals could exploit. (The main seeming weakness in the Uvalde response was that police, in violation of standard policy and protocol, refused to risk their lives to protect children.)
For example, the city and its police department argue that it should be exempted from releasing “police officer training guides, policy and procedure manuals, shift change schedules, security details, and blueprints of secured facilities,” because these could be used to decipher “methods, techniques, and strategies for preventing and predicting crime.” The Uvalde Police Department and Texas Department of Public Safety have been pilloried by the press and the public for standing in the hallway while a gunman killed children—against standard protocol—and for preventing parents from entering the building to save their children. The letter also argues that the department should be exempted from releasing body camera footage simply because it could be “information considered to be confidential by law, either constitutional, statutory, or by judicial decision.”
It is impossible to say what records, in particular, the city and the police are referring to in many parts of the letter. For example, it says it cannot release an individual's criminal history because it would be "not of legitimate concern to the public," because it could be "highly embarrassing," and because it would violate their common-law right to privacy. But the letter does not talk about who the records would be about, why they wouldn't be relevant to the public, or why they would be highly embarrassing.
“They claim that the compilation of individuals’ criminal history is highly embarrassing information, which is a strange cover. The embarrassing information is the inept police response,” Christopher Schneider, a professor of sociology at Brandon University who studies police body cameras and the disclosure of footage from them, told Motherboard, noting that suspects' criminal histories are released by the police all the time without anyone having requested them. “They have no problem using information like that against individuals of the public. The information disclosure needs to go both ways, if that’s the case.” Disciplinary or criminal records for members of the police, for example, would be obviously relevant public information in a case in which the police response has been highly criticized. "It’s rather ripe to say any of this is not of legitimate public concern," he added. "The whole country is trying to figure out how to not allow this to happen again."
This is a relatively common sort of argument, but it shows yet again that the deck is stacked against the public disclosure of public records when they are inconvenient or embarrassing to the police.
“The case that’s being made contains some particularly asinine stonewalling,” Schneider said. “It seems like the city is throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks, and seeking a ruling to suppress this information from being released.”
Schneider says that lumping together all 148 public records requests, and asking for a legal ruling on everything at once, seems like a tactic to prevent the release of anything and everything.
“It appears that they’re conflating all of the information requests as a justification to not release the stuff we should be seeing. If it’s an officer’s email to his wife, yeah, we don’t need to see this. But the body-worn camera footage is of concern. They’re conflating all of this information together to suppress the legitimate stuff,” he said.
In his research, Schneider said that body-worn cameras often do not do what they’re supposed to do, which is hold police accountable to the public. This is because public records laws are often written in such a way as to provide wide latitude to police to decide what the public actually gets to see, and allows them to “regain control of the narrative” when it is convenient for them.
“It’s not a coincidence journalists run into this problem [of not being able to obtain body camera footage] over and over again,” Schneider said. “The law is by design, the privacy rules are by design to make it absolutely as difficult as possible to release the information.”
Uvalde Hires Private Law Firm to Argue It Doesn’t Have to Release School Shooting Public Records
Some of the records relating to the Robb Elementary School shooting could be “highly embarrassing,” involve “emotional/mental distress,” and are “not of legitimate concern to the public,” the lawyers argued.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/88q...ave-to-release-school-shooting-public-records
Jason Koebler (17 June 2022)
The City of Uvalde and its police department are working with a private law firm to prevent the release of nearly any record related to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in which 19 children and two teachers died, according to a letter obtained by Motherboard in response to a series of public information requests we made. The public records Uvalde is trying to suppress include body camera footage, photos, 911 calls, emails, text messages, criminal records, and more.
“The City has not voluntarily released any information to a member of the public,” the city’s lawyer, Cynthia Trevino, who works for the private law firm Denton Navarro Rocha Bernal & Zech, wrote in a letter to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. The city wrote the letter asking Paxton for a determination about what information it is required to release to the public, which is standard practice in Texas. Paxton's office will eventually rule which of the city's arguments have merit and will determine which, if any, public records it is required to release.
The letter makes clear, however, that the city and its police department want to be exempted from releasing a wide variety of records in part because it is being sued, in part because some of the records could include “highly embarrassing information,” in part because some of the information is “not of legitimate concern to the public,” in part because the information could reveal “methods, techniques, and strategies for preventing and predicting crime,” in part because some of the information may cause or may "regard … emotional/mental distress," and in part because its response to the shooting is being investigated by the Texas Rangers, the FBI, and the Uvalde County District Attorney.
The letter explains that Uvalde has at least one in-house attorney (whose communications it is trying to prevent from public release), and yet, it is using outside private counsel to deal with a matter of extreme importance and public interest. Uvalde’s city government and its police department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Motherboard.
The city says that it has received 148 separate public records requests (including several from Motherboard), and has lumped all of them together, making a broad legal argument as to why it should not be required to respond to many of them. Earlier this week, Motherboard reported on a similar letter sent to Paxton by the Texas Department of Public Safety, which wanted to suppress body-camera footage because it could expose “weaknesses” in police response to crimes that criminals could exploit. (The main seeming weakness in the Uvalde response was that police, in violation of standard policy and protocol, refused to risk their lives to protect children.)
For example, the city and its police department argue that it should be exempted from releasing “police officer training guides, policy and procedure manuals, shift change schedules, security details, and blueprints of secured facilities,” because these could be used to decipher “methods, techniques, and strategies for preventing and predicting crime.” The Uvalde Police Department and Texas Department of Public Safety have been pilloried by the press and the public for standing in the hallway while a gunman killed children—against standard protocol—and for preventing parents from entering the building to save their children. The letter also argues that the department should be exempted from releasing body camera footage simply because it could be “information considered to be confidential by law, either constitutional, statutory, or by judicial decision.”
It is impossible to say what records, in particular, the city and the police are referring to in many parts of the letter. For example, it says it cannot release an individual's criminal history because it would be "not of legitimate concern to the public," because it could be "highly embarrassing," and because it would violate their common-law right to privacy. But the letter does not talk about who the records would be about, why they wouldn't be relevant to the public, or why they would be highly embarrassing.
“They claim that the compilation of individuals’ criminal history is highly embarrassing information, which is a strange cover. The embarrassing information is the inept police response,” Christopher Schneider, a professor of sociology at Brandon University who studies police body cameras and the disclosure of footage from them, told Motherboard, noting that suspects' criminal histories are released by the police all the time without anyone having requested them. “They have no problem using information like that against individuals of the public. The information disclosure needs to go both ways, if that’s the case.” Disciplinary or criminal records for members of the police, for example, would be obviously relevant public information in a case in which the police response has been highly criticized. "It’s rather ripe to say any of this is not of legitimate public concern," he added. "The whole country is trying to figure out how to not allow this to happen again."
This is a relatively common sort of argument, but it shows yet again that the deck is stacked against the public disclosure of public records when they are inconvenient or embarrassing to the police.
“The case that’s being made contains some particularly asinine stonewalling,” Schneider said. “It seems like the city is throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks, and seeking a ruling to suppress this information from being released.”
Schneider says that lumping together all 148 public records requests, and asking for a legal ruling on everything at once, seems like a tactic to prevent the release of anything and everything.
“It appears that they’re conflating all of the information requests as a justification to not release the stuff we should be seeing. If it’s an officer’s email to his wife, yeah, we don’t need to see this. But the body-worn camera footage is of concern. They’re conflating all of this information together to suppress the legitimate stuff,” he said.
In his research, Schneider said that body-worn cameras often do not do what they’re supposed to do, which is hold police accountable to the public. This is because public records laws are often written in such a way as to provide wide latitude to police to decide what the public actually gets to see, and allows them to “regain control of the narrative” when it is convenient for them.
“It’s not a coincidence journalists run into this problem [of not being able to obtain body camera footage] over and over again,” Schneider said. “The law is by design, the privacy rules are by design to make it absolutely as difficult as possible to release the information.”
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https://twitter.com/jason_koebler/status/1537838456654573569
Uvalde Hires Private Law Firm to Argue It Doesn’t Have to Release School Shooting Public Records
Some of the records relating to the Robb Elementary School shooting could be “highly embarrassing,” involve “emotional/mental distress,” and are “not of legitimate concern to the public,” the lawyers argued.
...
No worries. They'll investigate themselves, make sure procedures were followed, and make recommendations on areas for improvement. Nothing the public needs to see.
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Anti Globalist
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It just keeps getting worse ...
Source: Police never tried to open door to classrooms where Uvalde gunman had kids trapped
https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Uvalde-classroom-doors-17251116.php
Brian Chasnoff (18 June 2022)
Surveillance footage shows that police never tried to open a door to two classrooms at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde in the 77 minutes between the time a gunman entered the rooms and massacred 21 people and officers finally stormed in and killed him, according to a law enforcement source close to the investigation.
Investigators believe the 18-year-old gunman who killed 19 children and two teachers at the school on May 24 could not have locked the door to the connected classrooms from the inside, according to the source.
All classroom doors at Robb Elementary are designed to lock automatically when they are closed so that the only way to enter from the outside is with a key, the source said. Police might have assumed the door was locked, but the latest evidence suggests it may have been open the whole time, possibly due to a malfunction, the source said.
The surveillance footage indicates gunman Salvador Ramos, 18, was able to open the door to classroom 111 and enter with an assault-style rifle, the source said.
Another door led to classroom 112.
Ramos entered Robb Elementary at 11:33 a.m. that day through an exterior door that a teacher had pulled shut but that didn’t lock automatically as it was supposed to, indicating another malfunction in door locks at the school.
Police finally opened the door to classroom 111 and killed Ramos at 12:50 p.m. Whether the door was unlocked all along remains under investigation.
Regardless, officers had access the entire time to a “halligan” — a crowbar-like tool that could have opened the door to the classrooms even if it was locked, the source said.
Two minutes after Ramos entered the building, three Uvalde police officers chased him inside. Footage shows that Ramos fired rounds inside classrooms 111 and 112, briefly exited into the hallway and then re-entered through the door, the source said.
Ramos then shot at the officers through the closed door, grazing two of them with shrapnel. The officers retreated to wait for backup and heavy tactical equipment rather than force their way into the classrooms.
Pedro “Pete” Arredondo, the Uvalde school district police chief and the on-scene incident commander, has said he spent more than an hour in the hallway of the school. He told the Texas Tribune that he called for tactical gear, a sniper and keys to get inside. He said he held officers back from the door to the classrooms for 40 minutes to avoid gunfire.
When a custodian brought a large key ring, Arredondo said he tried dozens of the keys but none worked.
But Arredondo was not trying those keys in the door to classrooms 111 and 112, where Ramos was holed up, according to the law enforcement source. Rather, he was trying to locate a master key by using the various keys on doors to other classrooms nearby, the source and the Texas Tribune article said.
While Arredondo waited for a tactical team to arrive, children and teachers inside the classrooms called 911 at least seven times with desperate pleas for help. One of the two teachers who died, Eva Mireles, called her husband by cellphone after she was wounded and lay dying.
The massacre occurred two days before the start of summer break, on the same day as a just-completed awards ceremony for the 3rd and 4th-graders at Robb Elementary.
Days after the massacre, Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said at a news conference that “each door can lock from the inside” and that when Ramos went in, “he locked the door.” That information was preliminary, the source said, and further investigation by the Texas Rangers has yielded new revelations about the door.
As the investigation has unfolded, law enforcement has changed the story of the massacre several times, adding to public confusion over how police responded to the mass shooting.
Days after the shooting, DPS said the exterior door that Ramos entered had been left propped open by a teacher. It wasn’t. She had closed it. And the agency also corrected early misinformation that school police shot at Ramos before he entered the school. No school police officers confronted him outside the school.
DPS and Uvalde city officials have refused to provide further details, citing an ongoing criminal investigation into the massacre by Uvalde District Attorney Christina Mitchell Busbee.
The Texas Rangers, with assistance from the FBI, are investigating the police response. Separately, the Justice Department is conducting a “critical incident review” of the police response.
U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, said he was upset by the new details.
“As more of the story comes out, I’m shocked like the rest of the country at the incompetence and dereliction of duty by multiple law enforcement agencies who failed to save those kids,” Castro said. “I’m also increasingly disturbed by what looks like an attempt to cover up the truth by state officials and the local police department who have refused to comply with requests to release information to the public.”
State Rep. Roland Gutierrez, D-San Antonio, whose district encompasses Uvalde, said he was unaware of the revelations about the door. If the door was unlocked the entire time — or if police could have forced their way in regardless — then people likely died unnecessarily, he said.
“If that’s true, we probably could have saved three or four extra children,” Gutierrez said. “The teacher possibly could have been saved. We know two kids had gunshot wounds that they bled out from. We know that one teacher was alive when they pulled her out and she died on the way to the hospital.”
Any law enforcement agency whose officers waited in the hallway for more than an hour “committed negligence,” he said, if the door could have easily been breached the entire time.
Gutierrez added that investigators should immediately clarify exactly how police responded — or failed to respond — to the massacre.
“What were the failures?” Gutierrez continued. “Were they communication failures? Were they human error failures? Were they system failures? Or was it simply something as simple as not turning a doorknob? We need to know that. And the fact that they are hiding all of this information from the public and community in Uvalde is just a tragedy.”
Source: Police never tried to open door to classrooms where Uvalde gunman had kids trapped
https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Uvalde-classroom-doors-17251116.php
Brian Chasnoff (18 June 2022)
Surveillance footage shows that police never tried to open a door to two classrooms at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde in the 77 minutes between the time a gunman entered the rooms and massacred 21 people and officers finally stormed in and killed him, according to a law enforcement source close to the investigation.
Investigators believe the 18-year-old gunman who killed 19 children and two teachers at the school on May 24 could not have locked the door to the connected classrooms from the inside, according to the source.
All classroom doors at Robb Elementary are designed to lock automatically when they are closed so that the only way to enter from the outside is with a key, the source said. Police might have assumed the door was locked, but the latest evidence suggests it may have been open the whole time, possibly due to a malfunction, the source said.
The surveillance footage indicates gunman Salvador Ramos, 18, was able to open the door to classroom 111 and enter with an assault-style rifle, the source said.
Another door led to classroom 112.
Ramos entered Robb Elementary at 11:33 a.m. that day through an exterior door that a teacher had pulled shut but that didn’t lock automatically as it was supposed to, indicating another malfunction in door locks at the school.
Police finally opened the door to classroom 111 and killed Ramos at 12:50 p.m. Whether the door was unlocked all along remains under investigation.
Regardless, officers had access the entire time to a “halligan” — a crowbar-like tool that could have opened the door to the classrooms even if it was locked, the source said.
Two minutes after Ramos entered the building, three Uvalde police officers chased him inside. Footage shows that Ramos fired rounds inside classrooms 111 and 112, briefly exited into the hallway and then re-entered through the door, the source said.
Ramos then shot at the officers through the closed door, grazing two of them with shrapnel. The officers retreated to wait for backup and heavy tactical equipment rather than force their way into the classrooms.
Pedro “Pete” Arredondo, the Uvalde school district police chief and the on-scene incident commander, has said he spent more than an hour in the hallway of the school. He told the Texas Tribune that he called for tactical gear, a sniper and keys to get inside. He said he held officers back from the door to the classrooms for 40 minutes to avoid gunfire.
When a custodian brought a large key ring, Arredondo said he tried dozens of the keys but none worked.
But Arredondo was not trying those keys in the door to classrooms 111 and 112, where Ramos was holed up, according to the law enforcement source. Rather, he was trying to locate a master key by using the various keys on doors to other classrooms nearby, the source and the Texas Tribune article said.
While Arredondo waited for a tactical team to arrive, children and teachers inside the classrooms called 911 at least seven times with desperate pleas for help. One of the two teachers who died, Eva Mireles, called her husband by cellphone after she was wounded and lay dying.
The massacre occurred two days before the start of summer break, on the same day as a just-completed awards ceremony for the 3rd and 4th-graders at Robb Elementary.
Days after the massacre, Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said at a news conference that “each door can lock from the inside” and that when Ramos went in, “he locked the door.” That information was preliminary, the source said, and further investigation by the Texas Rangers has yielded new revelations about the door.
As the investigation has unfolded, law enforcement has changed the story of the massacre several times, adding to public confusion over how police responded to the mass shooting.
Days after the shooting, DPS said the exterior door that Ramos entered had been left propped open by a teacher. It wasn’t. She had closed it. And the agency also corrected early misinformation that school police shot at Ramos before he entered the school. No school police officers confronted him outside the school.
DPS and Uvalde city officials have refused to provide further details, citing an ongoing criminal investigation into the massacre by Uvalde District Attorney Christina Mitchell Busbee.
The Texas Rangers, with assistance from the FBI, are investigating the police response. Separately, the Justice Department is conducting a “critical incident review” of the police response.
U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, said he was upset by the new details.
“As more of the story comes out, I’m shocked like the rest of the country at the incompetence and dereliction of duty by multiple law enforcement agencies who failed to save those kids,” Castro said. “I’m also increasingly disturbed by what looks like an attempt to cover up the truth by state officials and the local police department who have refused to comply with requests to release information to the public.”
State Rep. Roland Gutierrez, D-San Antonio, whose district encompasses Uvalde, said he was unaware of the revelations about the door. If the door was unlocked the entire time — or if police could have forced their way in regardless — then people likely died unnecessarily, he said.
“If that’s true, we probably could have saved three or four extra children,” Gutierrez said. “The teacher possibly could have been saved. We know two kids had gunshot wounds that they bled out from. We know that one teacher was alive when they pulled her out and she died on the way to the hospital.”
Any law enforcement agency whose officers waited in the hallway for more than an hour “committed negligence,” he said, if the door could have easily been breached the entire time.
Gutierrez added that investigators should immediately clarify exactly how police responded — or failed to respond — to the massacre.
“What were the failures?” Gutierrez continued. “Were they communication failures? Were they human error failures? Were they system failures? Or was it simply something as simple as not turning a doorknob? We need to know that. And the fact that they are hiding all of this information from the public and community in Uvalde is just a tragedy.”
CCTelander
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pcosmar
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There are dead kids. give the parents a bit of respect..
The criminal act is being degraded by stupid theories. the real criminals are capitalizing on your bullshit.
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