Disturbing news emerged of a young girl calling the police from inside the shooting scene at the Uvalde school, more than 40 minutes before the officers arrived.
A CNN exclusive story says that the 10-year-old told the dispatcher: “I’m in room 112. Please hurry. There are a lot of corpses.”
Khloie Torres was trapped inside Robb Elementary School in the Texas city on May 24 when Salvador Ramos, who had dropped out of high school, shot and killed 19 children and two teachers.
CNN claims that her call was made at 12:10 pm that day. But it took another 40 minutes for Khloie to give details to the authorities before an attack team burst into the room, challenging the armed man at 12:50.
Reportedly, during the call she said, “Please get help. I don’t want to die. My teacher is dead. Oh, my God.”
Khloie, now 11, survived the attack.
Esmeralda Bravo lost her granddaughter in the shooting. Photo: Associated Press
His call is revealed after numerous similar claims of slow and chaotic police response to one of the deadliest classroom attacks in US history.
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Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, admitted the response was “abject failure” with “terrible decisions” made by the commander on the spot.
There was enough armed police to do it stop the gunman from Uvalde in three minutes after entering the school, he said.
The head of the Uvalde district police Pete Arredondo was fired for hesitant response.
Then, the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District suspended the entire police department on it.
The victims
Parents out of school as the massacre unfolded had asked law enforcement to take decisive action to save their children, some of whom even desperately called emergency health services.
There was also a delay in entering the classroom as the officers searched for a key. However, the door was not locked and there is no evidence the agents even checked, the Texas chief of public security said.
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A demonstration outside an annual National Rifle Association meeting held just days after the massacre. Photo: Associated Press
An initial report on what happened revealed Almost 400 law enforcement officers were sent to the scenebut despite the huge response in terms of staff, a “poor approach” and a general sense of “chaos” prevailed among each agency that participated.
CNN heard Khloie’s 911 call and others made by the girl herself and her classmates, whispering information and asking for help.
His report on it said: “It is the call that should have put an end to any doubts or hesitations that the armed teenager was active, wandering between the two connected classrooms, that the children were trapped, injured and needed to be rescued.” .
The families of some of the 19 children killed that day commemorated the Day of the Dead Tuesday with a rally, procession and decorated altar outside the Texas Capitol.
