[Updated] Texas School Shooting: Over A Dozen Children And 2 Teachers Killed In Uvalde Elementary School

Keneci Channel

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[Update] Texas School Shooting: Authorities Say Shooter Entered Classroom Through A Door Inadvertently "Propped Open By A Teacher"

At a press conference Friday, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw said the school resource officer was not present when the shooter Salvador Ramos arrived at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday.

McCraw said upon hearing over police radio, a report about a man carrying a gun in the area, a nearby officer responding to the scene, reportedly drove past the suspect prior to the 18-year-old unleashing his rampage on the school. The suspect had shot at some people earlier in the area, after crashing his car.

“[The responding officer] sped to what he thought was the man with the gun – to the back of the school – to what turned out to be a teacher and not the suspect,” McCraw said. “In doing so he drove right by the suspect who was hunkered down behind a vehicle where he began shooting at the school.”

McCraw said the door through which Ramos entered the classroom had been propped open by a teacher who apparently forgot to lock the door. Officials released a map showing the shooter's path of entry after arriving at the School.

By the time more officers arrived at the school, Ramos had entered a classroom where he killed 19 children and two teachers, and wounded many others.

According to McCraw, the 18-year-old shot at the officers who initially engaged him, wounding two of them. More officers arrived at the school. However the on-scene commander, Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Chief of Police Pete Arredondo told the officers to stand down. He made the decision to wait for a Border Patrol Tactical Team, BORTAC.

“A decision was made on the scene -- I wasn’t there -- that this was a barricaded subject situation, 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,” McCraw said. “At that point, that was the decision, that was the thought process.” For over 30 minutes, about 19 officers were stood down in the corridor adjacent to the room in which Ramos barricaded himself with his victims.

The DPS Director said the on-scene commander “was convinced at the time that there was no more threat to the children” and that responding officers "had time to organize with the proper equipment” to go into the classroom where Salvador Ramos was barricaded.

However against the on-scene commander's orders, the BORTAC team reportedly went ahead and breached the door. The agents engaged and killed the shooter.

McCraw later said “from the benefit of hindsight from where I am sitting now, that of course [the on-scene commander's stand-down order] was not the right decision, it was a wrong decision, very, there was no excuse for that... I wasn’t there but I’m just telling you from what we know, that we believe there should have been an entry as soon as you can.”

The DPS Director also said, “Texas embraces and teaches the active shooter doctrine. As long as there’s kids, as long as there's somebody firing, you go to the gun, you find them, you neutralize them, period. There are some nuances with transitioning to a barricaded subject and also transitioning to a hostage situation. And, of course, that the decision at the scene was that this is still a barricaded subject, it did not go back to an active shooter.”

One survivor Miah Cerrillo, 11, told a CNN reporter that the shooter said "goodnight" and played "sad" music before opening fire on the children.

Miah and her classmates were watching "Lilo & Stitch" on Tuesday during their last week of school when her teachers, deceased Eva Mireles and Irma Garcia, received an email alerting teachers that a shooter was in the building.

According to Miah, one of the teachers went to the classroom door, "and he was right there -- they made eye contact. She said it just happened all so fast. Ramos backed the teacher into the classroom. He made eye contact with the teacher, again, looked her right in the eye and said 'goodnight' and then shot her and killed her."

The gunman also began "blasting sad" music -- which the 11-year-old described as what "sounded like 'I want people to die' music," -- upon entering the classroom.

While her classmates and friends were being shot all around her, Miah had the intuition to cover herself in her nearby friend's blood to make herself appear dead.

The 11-year-old is now suffering from trauma and wounds from bullet fragments in her shoulders, back and head.

The victims of Tuesday's shooting include Mireles and Garcia; Uziyah Garcia, 8; Makenna Elrod, 10; Jose Flores Jr. 10; Rojelio Torres, 10; Xavier Lopez, 10; Amerie Jo Garza, 10; Annabelle Guadalupe Rodriguez, 10; Elijah Cruz Torres, 10; Eliahna Garcia, 10; Jayce Carmelo Luevanos, 10; Jaliah Nicole Silguero, 10; Tess Mata, 10; Alexandria Aniyah Rubio, 10; Jackie Cazares, 10; Nevaeh Bravo, 10; Layla Salazar, 11; Alithea Ramirez, 10; Maite Yuleana Rodriguez, 10; and Miranda Mathis, 11.

Speaking at another press conference in Uvalde, Friday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said he was “misled” by local officials about the events surrounding the shooting following discrepancies in earlier police reports on the timeline of events.

"I was misled," the governor said he had received "'inaccurate" information. "I am livid by what happened. I was on this very stage two days ago and I was telling the public information that had been told to me."

"I wrote down handnotes in detail about what everybody in that room told me in sequential order about what happened," Abbott added. "As everybody has learned, the information that I was given turned out, in part, to be inaccurate. I'm absolutely livid about that."

The governor demanded that law enforcement officials "get to the bottom of every fact with absolute certainty."

In remarks Friday, at the annual National Rifle Association convention in Houston, United States Republican senator Ted Cruz(R-Texas) called for significantly increased security in schools, including single entrances, armed guards, and more. He slammed Democrats for exploiting Tuesday's tragedy by pushing for more gun control measures. Critics have argued that the criminal -- and not the gun which is merely a tool -- is the problem.

Cruz lamented the "evil" behind the Uvalde school shooting. He further called for increased law enforcement efforts to prosecute people who buy guns illegally.

The senator said that legislation he previously introduced with Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, could help prevent some future shootings by providing funding to secure schools. The bill also would create a federal task force to go after people who buy guns illegally, and it would ensure all federal felony databases are updated.

Cruz also railed against cultural decadence, including violent media content and isolation in "virtual life in the absence of community and faith and love" as fundamental problems that cause shootings like the one in Uvalde.

Former President Donald Trump also spoke at the NRA convention.

After honoring the 19 children and two teachers who were murdered at the elementary School, the former president slammed his successor President Joe Biden for using “divisive” rhetoric.

“Sadly, before the sun had even said on the horrible day of tragedy we witnessed a now-familiar parade of cynical politicians seeking to exploit the tears of sobbing families to increase their own power and take away our constitutional rights,” Trump said. “Every time a disturbed or demented person commits such a hideous crime, there’s always a grotesque effort. by someone in our society to use the suffering of others to advance their own extreme political agenda.”

The former president said mass shootings are politicized in a “repulsive” rush is blame law-abiding gun owners. Biden had blamed "the gun lobby" for the Uvalde shooting Tuesday evening.

“When Joe Biden blamed the gun lobby, he was talking about Americans like you,” Trump said. “Along with countless other Democrats this week, he was shamefully suggesting that Republicans are somehow okay with letting school shootings happen... This rhetoric is highly divisive and dangerous, and, most importantly, it’s wrong. Has no place in our politics. As always, in the wake of these tragedies, the various gun control policies being pushed by the left would have done nothing to prevent the horror that took place. Absolutely nothing. Unfortunately, ever since Columbine, we’ve been afflicted by a contagion of school shootings carried out by deeply evil, violent and mentally disturbed young men."

The former president said that rather than blaming firearms for mass killings, the country should focus on mental health and intervention. “When people see something, whether on social media or in school, they need to say something,” Trump concluded.

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Salvador Ramos, 18, reportedly shot his grandmother during a domestic dispute, Tuesday. He then drove to Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, walked in at about 12:17 pm local time, and opened fire with an AR-15 rifle.

The suspect reportedly barricaded himself in one classroom and continued shooting until he was shot dead by law enforcement officers.

At least 19 children and 2 teacher were killed according Texas Governor Greg Abbott. 17 others sustained non life-threatening wounds. One deputy Sheriff lost a daughter.

Ramos was killed during an exchange of gunfire with responding law enforcement officers. He was shot and killed by a member of an elite Border Patrol Tactical Unit known as "BORTAC." According to Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz, "At least one agent was wounded by the shooter during the exchange of gunfire."

Texas Department of Public Safety Lt. Chris Olivarez, speaking on NBC, Wednesday, said the events that led to the deaths of 19 students and two teachers began when Ramos shot his grandmother and then crashed a vehicle while fleeing that scene. Local police then got calls about an individual armed with a weapon making his way into the school, according to Olivarez.

He said when law enforcement "tried to make entry into the building, they were met with gunfire by the suspect, by the shooter.

Robb Elementary School is located 80 miles west of San Antonio, and serves students in the second, third and fourth grades.

The suspect reportedly posted on Facebook about shooting his grandmother before embarking on killing spree at the elementary school.

Check for updates to this developing story...