Frantic students, teachers and witnesses at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, described the horror as it happened in 911 calls that were obtained by the Texas Tribune and ProPublica, and released with the permission of the families involved. Nineteen students and two teachers were killed in the May 24 shooting.
“He’s inside the school shooting at the kids,” a caller told a 911 dispatcher at 11:33 a.m.
Three minutes later, Monica Martinez, a teacher who was hiding in a closet, told a dispatcher, “there’s somebody banging at my school.”
After the gunman fired off dozens of rounds, and more than one hour after the massacre started, more desperate calls were made from inside the school, including one from 10-year-old Khloie Torres, who begged for help from officers standing on the other side of the wall. Torres survived the attack.
“Can you tell the police to come to my room?” Torres said.
“I already told them to go to the room,” a dispatcher said. “We’re trying to get someone to you.”
Even with hundreds of officers from nearly two dozen agencies on scene, the lack of coordinated communication was clear. A dispatcher incorrectly stated that Pete Arredondo, the Uvalde school district police chief at the time of the shooting, was in the room with the shooter.
“Just be advised 401 is in the room with the shooter,” the dispatcher said, using Arredondo’s call sign. “401 is in the room with the shooter.”
Last week, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw defended his agency’s response to the massacre.
“I can tell you this right now — DPS as an institution right now, did not fail the community, plain and simple,” he said at a public safety commission hearing in Austin.
Javier Cazares, the father of Jackie Cazares, who was killed in the massacre, still wants justice.
“Should he (Steven McCraw) resign? Yes,” Cazares said. “But I believe we should finish this investigation. You know he can’t get off that easy.”
