The 18-year-old gunman who killed 19 children in an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas “walked in unobstructed” and was not “confronted by anybody” despite initial police reports suggesting an armed officer was on the campus at the time, according to police.
“It was reported that a school district police officer confronted the suspect,” a statement that is “not accurate” according to Victor Escalon, a regional director with the Texas Department of Public Safety, contradicting earlier reports.
“He walked in unobstructed initially,” he said during a press conference from Uvalde on 26 May, two days after the massacre. “He was not confronted by anybody.”
A door to the school also was unlocked, according to Escalon.
Officials at the press conference were not able to answer why it took officers more than one hour to breach the fourth-grade classroom where Salvador Ramos had entered, which law enforcement had initially
“They don’t make entry initially because of the gunfire they’re receiving,” according to Escalon.
According to a timeline provided by officials, Ramos shot his grandmother in the face then wrecked a pickup truck outside the school at 11.28am on 24 May.
He exited from the driver’s side of the truck with an AR-15-style rifle and a bag of ammunition, then fired towards two people near a funeral home across the street. He walked towards the school, climbed a fence into the parking lot and fired “multiple” rounds, according to Escalon.
Ramos entered through an unlocked door at Robb Elementary School at roughly 11.40am, and “numerous rounds are discharged in the school,” Escalon said.
This is a developing story
