Status: 05/26/2022 11:07 p.m
After the killing spree in Uvalde, Texas, more details became known. The attacker entered the school through an unlocked door, investigators said. Police reinforcements arrived an hour later.
According to official sources, the Uvalde gunman spent around an hour in the classroom where he shot children and teachers. Only then did reinforcements arrive and kill the gunman, said Victor Escalon of the Texas Department of Public Safety at a press conference.
The 18-year-old attacker entered the school in the municipality of Uvalde around 11.40 a.m. local time on Tuesday. He was able to do so freely, according to Escalon, because one door was unlocked. Then he went into a classroom near the entrance. The perpetrator initially did not encounter security forces when he entered Robb Elementary School.
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Apparently, special equipment was missing
Although security personnel were on site, they initially did not go into the classroom because it had been shot at, Escalon said. The police then called for reinforcements. They lacked special equipment. They evacuated school children and teachers and tried to negotiate with the shooter. He fired most of the shots at the very beginning.
“There wasn’t much shooting during the negotiations, other than trying to keep the cops at bay,” Escalon said. The police had already been called when witnesses saw the armed shooter in front of the school.
Perpetrator had contact to Germany
Recently there had been loud criticism from parents of the actions of the emergency services. They accuse the police of being idle for too long. This is coming under more and more pressure to justify itself. It was a “complex situation,” Escalon said. He asked for more time to analyze the events in more detail.
The attacker shot dead 19 school children and two teachers in the elementary school on Tuesday. The crime happened in a classroom.
As the broadcaster CNN reported, the 18-year-old is said to have been in contact with a 15-year-old girl from Frankfurt am Main in the weeks before the crime. He last wrote a few minutes before the crime. He first told her that he had shot his grandmother “in the head”. He then concluded that he was going to “shoot up” an elementary school. According to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, the shooter announced his plans on Facebook shortly before the crime.
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