May 27 Texas school massacre news

By Travis Caldwell, Seán Federico-O'Murchú, Aditi Sangal, Adrienne Vogt and Melissa Macaya, CNN

Updated 4:46 a.m. ET, May 28, 2022
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4:16 p.m. ET, May 27, 2022

Uvalde school police chief identified as commander who decided not to breach classroom

From CNN’s Curt Devine

At a news conference Friday, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Col. Steven McCraw said the person who made the decision not to breach the Uvalde elementary school classroom where a gunman was shooting children and teachers was the school district police chief, calling it the “wrong decision” to not engage the gunman sooner. 

The Uvalde School District Police Chief is Pedro “Pete” Arredondo.

"A decision was made that this was a barricaded subject situation," McCraw said of the incident commander's "thought process" at the time.

Pressed by reporters if Arredondo was on the scene during the shooting, McCraw declined to comment. 

Arredondo is identified on the Uvalde School District website as the police chief and was introduced as the police chief at news conferences on Tuesday in the hours following the shooting at Robb Elementary.

At the news conferences, Arredondo stated the gunman was deceased, but provided little other information on the massacre, citing an “active investigation” and taking no questions from those gathered.

CNN attempted to reach Arredondo at his home on Friday, but there was no response. 

Arredondo has nearly three decades of law enforcement experience, according to the school district, and he was recently elected to a seat on Uvalde’s city council. 

A board of trustees for the school district approved Arredondo to head the department in 2020. The district’s superintendent, Hal Harrell, said in a Facebook post at the time that the board was “confident with our selection and impressed with his experience, knowledge, and community involvement.”

Arredondo told The Uvalde Leader-News after his appointment that he was happy to return to work in his hometown and that he wanted to emphasize education and training at the police department. “We can never have enough training,” he told the newspaper. 

In March, Arredondo posted on Facebook that his department was hosting an “active shooter training” at Uvalde High School in an effort to prepare local law enforcement to respond to “any situation that may arise.” A flyer for the event he posted stated that topics covered would include priorities for school-based law enforcement and how to “stop the killing.” 

Arredondo previously served as a captain at a school-district police department in Laredo, Texas, and in multiple roles at the Uvalde Police Department. 

4:43 p.m. ET, May 27, 2022

CNN analyst explains why a school district police chief took control as "incident commander" during shooting

From CNN's Dave Alsup

Anthony Barksdale, CNN law enforcement analyst and former acting Baltimore Police Commissioner, offered some context as to why larger law enforcement agencies responding Tuesday to the deadly mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, were taking commands from the school district's police chief as they arrived on scene. 

"The incident command system comes from the fire fights in California in the 70s.  It establishes who is in charge," Barksdale told CNN's Victor Blackwell and Alisyn Camerota. "So, if the chief says, ‘I’m the incident commander’, then he’s in charge. And every resource that falls under him has to follow what he or she says, because that’s ultimately the boss at the time."

But if officers on the scene of an incident come to believe the "incident commander" is making the wrong calls, they can ignore or overrule his decisions, Barksdale said. "And you face him later on and... deal with it," he added.

"This was a case where they should have kept the pressure up; kept engaged trying to breach that door and deal with this shooter,” Barksdale continued. "If things get quiet, if there’s a lull, maybe there’s a weapon malfunction. Maybe he’s trying to reload. Maybe he’s out of ammo. And that’s the time to get him. You keep going; you pour it on. You put the pressure on, and you don’t stop until that threat is completely incapacitated."  

“You’re going in there to kill this shooter. Those little kids deserved that on that day,” said an emotional Barksdale. “And they didn’t get it."

More background: During a Friday news conference, Texas Department of Public Safety Col. Steven McCraw said the school district on-scene commander's decision to not have officers immediately try to breach the classroom and confront the gunman was "wrong." The Texas official said the commander at the time believed that the situation had "transitioned from an active shooter to a barricaded subject."

While officers waited outside adjoining classrooms at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, children inside the room repeatedly called 911 and pleaded for help, he said.

The damning revelation explained the lengthy wait between when officers first arrived to the school at 11:44 a.m. local time and when a tactical team finally entered the room and killed the gunman at 12:50 p.m. local. The tactical team was able to enter using keys from a janitor, McCraw said.

CNN's Eric Levenson, Virginia Langmaid, Shimon Prokupecz and Nora Neus contributed reporting to this post. 

3:51 p.m. ET, May 27, 2022

Senate Judiciary Committee will hold hearing on gun violence on June 15, Sen. Durbin says

From CNN's Morgan Rimmer 

Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, said on Twitter that the committee will hold a hearing on gun violence on June 15, following the deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. 

"[The] government announcement this week that the number one cause of death for kids and teenagers in America is guns has led us to set a hearing in the middle of June, about two weeks from now, and that's going to be on the issue of guns and children across America," Durbin said in a video posted on his Twitter account.

See his tweet:

4:34 p.m. ET, May 27, 2022

Father of Uvalde victim calls for accountability following new details on timing of officers' response

From CNN’s Jason Carroll and Linh Tran

Alfred Garza speaks with CNN on Friday.
Alfred Garza speaks with CNN on Friday. (CNN)

Alfred Garza, the father of 10-year-old Amerie Jo Garza, told CNN Friday that while nothing can bring his daughter back after the deadly mass shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, he believes someone should be held accountable over the police response — in particular regarding the time it took officers to engage with the gunman.

During a Friday news conference, Texas Department of Public Safety Col. Steven McCraw said the school district police chief's decision to not have officers immediately try to breach the classroom and engage the gunman was "wrong."

The chief, serving as incident commander during the shooting, thought officers were dealing with a barricaded subject and not an active shooter at the time, McCraw said.

Speaking to CNN’s Jason Carroll, Garza said he wondered if his daughter and others may have survived if authorities had acted sooner. 

"They should have acted more promptly," Garza said. "Time is of essence with stuff like that … they should have just acted quicker. And that's it. And that's the bottom line."
Amerie Jo Garza and Alfred Garza. 
Amerie Jo Garza and Alfred Garza.  (Courtesy Alfred Garza)

“By the time the cops got there, it was already too late, you know, so they needed to act immediately,” Garza told CNN.

Garza said he he understands the anger some parents are feeling in the aftermath of shooting, and called for accountability and "consequences."

"We need to make sure that, from this point on, that something like this does not happen again, or that we are better prepared,” he said. 

"The circumstances around this event, I mean it’s bad, right? I mean, people literally died. My daughter died, and I feel just as bad for everybody else," he continued. "Somebody needs to be held responsible."

Garza said he’s been told his daughter may have been one of those who tried to call 911 from the classroom in which the gunman had locked himself in. Authorities have said there were at least two calls to 911 from children during the deadly shooting.

Yesterday, CNN's Anderson Cooper interviewed Amerie's stepfather, med aide Angel Garza, who described how he learned about the death of the 10-year-old as he arrived to the school during the shooting to help.

"One little girl was just covered in blood head to toe. I thought she was injured, I asked her what was wrong. She said she was OK — she was hysterical, saying that they shot her best friend, that they killed her best friend, she was not breathing," Garza told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Wednesday.

"I asked the little girl the name, and ... she said Amerie," he said, dropping his head and weeping.

2:51 p.m. ET, May 27, 2022

Here's the latest timeline from authorities for the Uvalde school shooting

From CNN’s Virginia Langmaid

Steven McCraw, the Director and Colonel of the Texas Department of Public Safety, points to a map of the shooter’s movements during a press conference in front of Robb Elementary School where a deadly shooting left 19 children and two teachers dead, in Uvalde, Texas, on Friday, May 27.
Steven McCraw, the Director and Colonel of the Texas Department of Public Safety, points to a map of the shooter’s movements during a press conference in front of Robb Elementary School where a deadly shooting left 19 children and two teachers dead, in Uvalde, Texas, on Friday, May 27. (Matthew Busch for CNN)

Texas Department of Public Safety Director Col. Steven McCraw on Friday gave a detailed timeline of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School on May 24 that left 19 children and two teachers dead.

Here are the key moments he laid out (all times are in Central Standard Time):

11:27 a.m.: Video shows that an exterior door to Ross Elementary School that gunman Salvador Ramos entered was propped open by a teacher.

11:28 a.m: Ramos crashes a vehicle near the school into a ditch, gets out and begins firing upon two people who came outside to see the crash near a funeral home. Civilians are not struck by gunfire. The teacher runs to a room to get a phone, returns to the door, and the door remains open. 

11:30 a.m.: The first 911 call is made to Uvalde police reporting a car crash and a man with a gun outside the school.

11:30 a.m.: The US Marshals Service says it received a call from a Uvalde police officer requesting assistance.  

11:31 a.m.: The shooting suspect reaches the last row of cars in the school parking lot and shooting begins outside of the school. Patrol vehicles reach the funeral home, and a patrol car drives by shooter, who is hunkered down by another vehicle.

11:32 a.m.: The suspect fires at the school. 

11:33 a.m.: The suspect enters the school and begins shooting into a classroom. He shot more than 100 rounds.

11:35 a.m.: A total of seven officers are on the scene, and three officers enter the school, later followed by an additional team of three more officers and a sheriff. Two of the initial officers received grazing wounds from the suspect while the classroom door was closed.

11:37 a.m.: Sixteen rounds were fired from 11:37 a.m. to 11:44 a.m.

11:43 a.m.: Robb Elementary announces on Facebook that "Robb Elementary is under a Lockdown Status due to gunshots in the area."

11:51 a.m.: More officers arrive.

12:03 p.m.: As many as 19 officers are in the school's hallway. 

12:03 p.m.: A girl in room 112 of the school makes a 911 call.

12:10 p.m.: A 911 call is received from the same girl in room 112, reporting multiple people are dead.

12:13 p.m.: The girl makes another 911 call.

12:15 p.m.: Border Patrol's tactical unit BorTac team arrives on scene.

12:16 p.m.: The same girl makes another 911 call, reporting there were “eight to nine students alive."

12:17 p.m.: Robb Elementary announces on Facebook: "There is an active shooter at Robb Elementary. Law enforcement is on site. Your cooperation is needed at this time by not visiting the campus. As soon as more information is gathered it will be shared. The rest of the district is under a Secure Status."

12:19 p.m.: A different 911 call is received from a caller in room 111, but the caller hung up after another student told them to.

12:21 p.m.: Suspect fires again.

12:21 p.m.: Another 911 call is received, and three shots fired are heard.  

12:21 p.m.: Officers move down the hallway.

12:36 p.m.: There is a 911 call that last 21 seconds, with a student saying, "he shot the door."  

12:43 and 12:47 p.m.: 911 caller says "please send police now." 

12:46 p.m.: 911 caller can hear police next door.

12:50 p.m.: Shots are heard being fired over the 911 call.

12:50 p.m.: Law enforcement breach door using keys from janitor and kill suspect. 

12:51 p.m.: On 911 call, it sounds like officers are moving children out of the room.

1:37 p.m. ET, May 27, 2022

Photos show desperate moments outside Uvalde school as students climb out windows to escape shooting

From CNN's Kyle Almond

(Pete Luna/Uvalde Leader-News)
(Pete Luna/Uvalde Leader-News)

Chilling details continue to emerge about Tuesday’s mass shooting that left 19 students and two teachers dead at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

One of the young survivors told CNN that she and her classmates were watching a movie when the shooter entered her room and shot her teacher and many of her friends.

According to officials with the Texas Department of Public Safety, the shooter was in the school for up to an hour and had barricaded himself inside adjoining classrooms.

(Pete Luna/Uvalde Leader-News)
(Pete Luna/Uvalde Leader-News)

As all this was taking place, parents had joined dozens of law enforcement officers outside the school, desperate to know if their children were still alive.

(Pete Luna/Uvalde Leader-News)
(Pete Luna/Uvalde Leader-News)

Pete Luna, the general manager of The Uvalde Leader-News, was among those outside, waiting for a positive development. He then saw a group of children who were escaping through windows with the help of law enforcement. Luna’s photos are some of the few that CNN has seen from that turbulent time when the gunman was still in the school.

(Pete Luna/Uvalde Leader-News)
(Pete Luna/Uvalde Leader-News)

View more photos here.

3:52 p.m. ET, May 27, 2022

200 FBI personnel have been on the scene in Uvalde since Tuesday's shooting, official says

FBI special agent Oliver Rich, right, speaks during a press conference on Friday, May 27.
FBI special agent Oliver Rich, right, speaks during a press conference on Friday, May 27. (Matthew Busch/CNN)

Taking a question from CNN's Shimon Prokupecz during Friday's news conference, FBI special agent Oliver Rich, who leads the FBI's San Antonio field office, addressed the possibility of an "independent investigation" into the mass shooting.

"First, I want to say I understand there are a lot of questions and a lot of frustration in and our hearts go out to the families and victims of this tragedy," Rich said.

"We are here to assist in the investigation, to provide the support to the community," he continued, citing a total of 200 people from the bureau who he said have been working in Uvalde over the past four days. "We have people working all across the country to support this community and to support this investigation. We are continuing in that vein."

"If the facts bear out that there is a federal nexus, then the FBI will conduct an appropriate investigation at that time," Rich concluded. "But for now, we continue in this to support the Texas Rangers."

1:04 p.m. ET, May 27, 2022

Texas official lays out 911 calls from student in Robb Elementary School during shooting

From CNN’s Amanda Watts

Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw said there were at least two calls to 911 from children during the deadly shooting at Robb Elementary School.

He laid out one of the calls. McCraw did not provide the name of a girl who called and did not release the audio, saying it’s better that he reads it “than you listen to it."

Here's the timeline from him:

  • A 911 call came in from a girl in room 112 at 12:03 p.m. local time.
  • The call lasted one minute, 23 seconds. She identified herself and her location in a whisper.
  • At 12:10 p.m. local time she called back and said there were multiple dead.
  • She called back at 12:13 p.m. local time and again at 12:16 p.m. local time to say there were “eight to nine students alive,” McCraw laid out.
  • At 12:36 p.m. local time, McCraw said that on a 911 call, two or three shots could be heard.
  • The student called back “and was told to stay on the line and be very quiet,” McCraw said.
  • At one point, the girl said she could hear police nearby.
  • At 12:51 p.m. local time, McCraw said the call got “very loud” and sounded like officers were moving children out of the room.
3:49 p.m. ET, May 27, 2022

Texas official: It was "wrong decision" not to immediately breach classroom door

Texas Department of Public Safety Col. Steven McCraw speaks during a press conference on Friday, May 27.
Texas Department of Public Safety Col. Steven McCraw speaks during a press conference on Friday, May 27. (Matthew Busch for CNN)

While taking questions from reporters during Friday's news conference, Col. Steven McCraw of the Texas Department of Public Safety criticized some aspects of the police response to the shooting, in particular regarding the time it took for officers to engage with the gunman.

"A decision was made that this was a barricaded subject situation," McCraw said of the incident commander's "thought process" at the time.

Rather than immediately try to breach the classroom and engage with the gunman, McCraw said the commander — who he later identified as the school district's chief of police — decided that "there was time to retrieve the keys, and wait for a tactical team with the equipment to go ahead and breach the door and take on the subject."

"From the benefit of hindsight where I'm sitting now, of course it was not the right decision. It was the wrong decision, period. There's no excuse for that. But again, I wasn't there," he added.

"We believe there should have been an entry as soon as you can," McCraw continued. "When there's an active shooter, the rules change."

The revelation explains the lengthy wait between when officers first arrived to the school at 11:44 a.m. local time and when a tactical team finally entered the room and killed the gunman at 12:50 p.m. local time. The tactical team was able to enter using keys from a janitor, McCraw said.

Hear the Texas official during the press conference here:

CNN's Nora Neus, Eric Levenson, Michelle Krupa and Elizabeth Wolfe contributed reporting to this post.