New images show the flaws in the police response during the massacre at the Uvalde school in Texas on May 24. /
Nearly 400 agents responded to the shooting in a chaotic environment of misinformation, according to the state commission that investigates the crime.
The spirits ran hot this Monday in Uvalde (Texas), and it had nothing to do with the heat wave, but with the indignation that plagues the town after the report of the state assembly on the shooting that shocked the country was made public last May 24. An 18-year-old boy, whose name is not mentioned so as not to contribute to the glorification he sought, ruthlessly murdered 19 children between the ages of 9 and 11 and two teachers, but that is already in the bag. What has reopened the wounds is seeing the “lazy” police action, guided by “appallingly deficient” decisions, the 77-page report concludes.
Nearly 400 policemen went to the primary school where the massacre took place. The police entered the interior just a few minutes after the gunman and, even so, it took more than an hour and a quarter to confront him. Some agents entered panting at a gallop, according to the camera that Daniel Coronado wore on his chest. But, once inside, he finds his classmates standing in the corridor, with their weapons in position but with no intention of breaking into the classroom where the gunman has barricaded himself. More shots are heard and the police back off. It’s 11:38. The killer had entered shooting five minutes earlier.
As time passes, the initial tension of the uniformed men decreases. They relax, chat with each other, look at the phone, look at the children’s drawings on the wall boards, take the opportunity to put disinfectant gel on their hands. Any nurse knows that, when it comes to saving the life of an injured person, every minute counts. Eva Mireles’s husband also knew it. He is police. His wife, a 44-year-old fourth-grade teacher, called from inside the classroom to tell him that he had been shot. Rubén Ruiz did not think twice and went in to look for the gun in his hand. Other agents intercepted him in the corridor, detained him and confiscated his weapon. Meanwhile, his wife bled to death inside her, along with her students.
“A systemic failure”
Of the 376 police officers who responded to the scene, 149 were from the special unit of the Border Patrol, since Mexico is only a hundred kilometers away. They regularly patrol the surroundings of Uvalde and any night they can be seen in full raid. Another 91 were from the Texas Department of Public Safety and 14 from the federal Department of Homeland Security. Still, they all left command to a small group of school police officers, who lacked the necessary training to deal with a mass shooting of this scale.
“Isolated phrases or paragraphs cannot be singled out from this report,” said state Rep. Dustin Burrows, who helped write the report. But, if you have to choose one, it was a systemic failure. Leading the operation was the school district’s police chief, Pedro ‘Pete’ Arredondo. Only he didn’t know. He declared that he always felt like one more agent on the scene. Still, in the videos he is seen trying to convince the gunman over the phone to turn himself in, in both English and Spanish. “This can be done peacefully, no more people have to die,” he tells her. What does not seem either is that the 18-year-old has an interest in getting out alive. He has already shot his grandmother in the face, as well as the children he barricaded himself with. He just aspires to make headlines around the world.
The report estimates that it is “almost certain” that he had already fired “at least a hundred” of the 142 shell casings he left inside the building, but he can be heard continuing to pull the trigger as Arredondo tries different keys to open the classroom door. (it was unlocked, but no one tried to just turn the doorknob). “Man, we need to get in there, he’s still shooting,” one officer is heard commenting to another. One of them receives a call from the emergency services. “He has called a boy from class 12 who claims to be surrounded by corpses.” Lieutenant Mariano Pargas, head of the Uvalde Police, listens to him without commenting. Since Sunday he has been temporarily suspended from office. The boy (or girl) would call back twice more to report that there were companions alive, “eight or nine,” he says. “Please send the police,” he pleads. The police were at the door of his class, but Arredondo was still looking for the key. It would take them another half hour to get inside, until the Border Patrol Tactical Unit broke down the door and killed the gunman.
Life in prison or death sentence for confessed Parkland killer
The trial against Nikolas Cruz, the 23-year-old who in February 2018 murdered 17 people (14 of them minors) in a Florida institute, began yesterday. Cruz, who pleaded guilty to the deaths and 17 other attempted murders, faces the death penalty or life in prison. The decision (in the case of capital punishment, it must be adopted unanimously) will be made by a jury made up of seven men and five women. The defendant, who according to his defense argues that he has “mental disorders”, fired 139 shots during the massacre.