An official in Uvalde, Texas, said he has “no idea” where a school resource officer was at the time of last week’s mass shooting that left 21 dead.
So far, there have been conflicting reports about where the school officer was when 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos entered Robb Elementary School. Questions have also emerged about why a door was propped open by a teacher minutes before, and why police delayed entering the building by about an hour.
“I’m like a lot of people. We’re still in the dark about that. We’re still learning new developments that are coming to light,” Uvalde County Commissioner Ronald Garz told CBS News on Sunday. “My heart goes out to the community. We’re emotionally shattered.”
Authorities have yet to clarify the location of the unnamed officer. Last week, Steve McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said the officer responded after someone called 911 about a car crash that had involved Ramos near the school. After the call, the officer “drove immediately to the area he thought was the man with the gun, to the back of the school, which turned out to be a teacher,” McCraw said.
Officials are still trying to come up with a comprehensive timeline of how the incident unfolded. Police in Uvalde have recently faced criticism about how long they took to respond and stop the shooter, who killed 19 children and two teachers inside Robb Elementary. Ramos was shot and killed around 90 minutes after he entered the school.
“That officer was not on scene, not on campus, but had heard the 911 call about the man with the gun and drove immediately to the area, sped to what he thought was the man with the gun to the back of the school and what turned out to be a teacher and not the suspect,” McCraw said.
It’s not clear why the officer wasn’t at the school on Tuesday.
McCraw, who wasn’t involved in the law enforcement response, admitted that “it was the wrong decision” to delay entering the room where Ramos was located. Responding officers, he said, believed the suspect was barricaded inside two connecting classrooms and that children were no longer at risk.
During public remarks on Friday, Gov. Greg Abbott said he is “livid” about being “misled” about the details of the law enforcement response.
“There are people who deserve answers the most, and those are the families whose lives have been destroyed. They need answers that are accurate, and it is inexcusable that they may have suffered from any inaccurate information whatsoever,” the Texas Republican said.
