Were the police slow to intervene to arrest the author of the shooting in Texas? After 19 children and two female teachers were killed in Uvalde school on Tuesday, police is singled out, accused of being passive in the face of the shooter. During a press conference on Thursday, May 26, a manager of the Texas State Security Department, Victor Escalon, received a barrage of questions from the press. Franceinfo takes stock of the criticisms addressed to the police.
The questions are partly fueled by the vagueness surrounding the exact course of the shooting. The circumstances in which the shooter, Salvador Ramos, entered the school were the subject of conflicting information. Officials from the authorities initially claimed thata school security officer had intervened to try to prevent the assailant from entering the establishment, reports the washington post*. A version contradicted Thursday by Victor Escalon. The killer “entered without obstacle” in school and “didn’t face anyone”to any policeman, he explained during a press conference.
The media also questioned Victor Escalon on several occasions about the time that elapsed between the moment the shooter arrived in front of the school at 11:28 a.m. and his entry into the premises twelve minutes later, explains National Public Radio*. After getting out of his wrecked vehicle, the man, carrying a semi-automatic rifle and a backpack full of ammunition, fired in the direction of two people near an undertaker on the other side of the street, then climbed the school fence, detailed Victor Escalon. Salvador Ramos then fired into the school building before finally entering the facility.
According to this official, the police received a call at 11:30 a.m. alerting them to the presence of an armed man. The first police arrived on the scene “four minutes” after the assailant broke into the school. “They hear gunshots, take bullets, fall back and take cover”has followed Victor Escalon. Reinforcements are called and the police surround the establishment.
But it is above all the delay to neutralize the assailant who is interrogating. “Approximatly one hour” elapsed between the shooter’s entry into the school and the launch of the assault, recognized Victor Escalon. Asked about this time frame and whether the intervention should have been triggered earlier, he admitted that it was a “Difficult question” and that he had no “not enough information yet” to answer it, writes NBC News*.
While the shooter was inside the school, pSeveral parents gathered in front of the establishment testified to their incomprehension. “There were at least 40 officers armed to the teeth, but they did nothing until it was too late”, estimated with ABC * Jacinto Cazares, father of Jacklyn Cazares, one of the victims, aged 10. The parents “were ready to go home”told AFP Daniel Myers, a 72-year-old pastor, who witnessed the scene.
“One of the relatives said, ‘I was in the military, just give me a gun, I’ll go. I won’t hesitate. I’ll go.'”
Daniel Myers, a witness of the sceneat AFP
In a video obtained by the media Storyful *, we can indeed see parents urging the police to intervene. Lhe police forces first “evacuated staff, students, teachers”, has for his part explained Victor Escalon. “The first officers to arrive on the scene were at a disadvantage. They had no way in”said Chris Olivarez, spokesman for the Texas Department of Security, to CBS News *.
The police waited for the arrival of a elite unit of border police to launch the assault, the border with Mexico being near Uvalde. Officers are entered the school around 12:45 p.m., another department spokesman, Travis Considine, reported AP News*. Border Police Chief Raul Ortiz told CNN* that members of his unit “didn’t hesitate”.
“They came up with a plan. They walked into the classroom and they took charge of the situation as quickly as they could.”
Raul Ortiz, Border Patrol Chiefon CNN
Upon entering the establishment, the security forces were fired upon by the assailant, barricaded inside, detailed on Twitter* an official from the Department of Homeland Security. The agents “placed themselves between the shooter and children to draw his attention away from potential victims”, she also said. The assailant was killed shortly before 1 p.m.
Facing the press, Victor Escalon rehearsed on Thursday that there was “a lot of information” and “many fluctuating points” in the survey. “It takes days, hours, it takes time”insisted the manager.
For his part, spokesperson Chris Olivarez assured Thursday evening that the investigators were conducting interviews with the police to try “to establish exactly their role”. “It will help us to establish a more factual and concrete timeline, between when the shooter arrived at the school and when he was killed, and what happened in between”he added to CNN*.
* All links followed by an asterisk refer to content in English.