Parents were seen shouting at police to try to keep them away from Rob Elementary School.
In both cases:
Texas police on Thursday faced angry questions about why it took an hour to neutralize the gunman who killed 19 young children and two teachers in Uvalade, as videos of frustrated parents begging officers to storm the school surfaced.
In a jiffy, about seven-minute clip posted on YouTube, parents living in a nightmare – shooting with their kids inside a school – shouting at police trying to keep Rob away from elementary school.
“This is my daughter!” A woman screams in a chaotic scene of crying and shaking.
Angeli Rose Gomez, whose children were inside, told the Wall Street Journal that she was handcuffed by federal marshals after she and others pushed the police to intervene.
In another short video, parents behind the building apparently complain angrily that police are doing nothing because of the worst school shooting in the country in a decade.
A woman, obsessed with her son, yells at police: “If they shoot, shoot him or something. Go.”
Jacinto Cajares, whose daughter Jacqueline died Tuesday, said she ran to the school after hearing of the shooting.
“At least 40 lawyers were armed with teeth but didn’t do anything until it was too late,” Cajares told ABC News on Wednesday.
“If they had better tactical training the situation would have ended quickly.”
Daniel Myers and his wife Matilda – both local pastors – told AFP they saw the parents go crazy at the scene because police appeared to be waiting for reinforcements before entering the school.
“My parents were desperate,” said Daniel Myers, 72. A family member, he said: ‘I was in the military, just give me a gun, I’ll go inside. I will not hesitate. Get in “
‘About an hour’
The tight Latino community changed forever when 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, an 18-year-old with a history of bullying, entered the school and shot students and teachers with an assault rifle.
Relatives say the husband of one of the teachers killed in the attack died Thursday from a medical emergency – mourning the loss of his wife. The couple had four children.
Faced with quick-fire questions from reporters in response to the police, Victor Escalon of the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) said investigators are still working to gather exactly what happened.
After shooting his own grandmother, Ramos crashed his car near the school, Escalan said, then apparently opened fire on spectators before entering through an open door.
Officers left a few minutes later, but were stopped by gunfire and called for a backup. A tactical team, including a U.S. Border Patrol agent, entered “about an hour later” and killed the gunman.
In the interim, officers removed students and teachers and tried unsuccessfully to negotiate with the gunmen, who were holding them back with rifle shots, Escalon said.
‘I have nothing to say’
Speaking for the first time, Ramos’ mother, Adriana Reyes, told ABC News that her son could be aggressive if angry, but “not a monster” – and she was unaware that he was buying weapons.
“I sometimes had an uncomfortable feeling, like ‘What are you doing?’,” He told ABC on Wednesday evening. “We all have an anger, for some people it is more than others.”
“Those kids … I have nothing to speak about,” Reyes said with tears in his eyes. “I don’t know what to say about these poor kids.”
Students who went to high school with Ramos said he threatened others and was at the end of the abuse.
“I clearly think he was a rapist at school. It’s not just that he was bullied, he was a bully,” 18-year-old Jaime Cruz told AFP.
The shooting was the deadliest since 20 primary school children and six staff members were killed at Sandy Hook School in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012.
‘Common sense’
Gun maker Daniel Defense, who manufactured the assault rifle used in Uvalade, told AFP they would not attend a conference of the powerful National Rifle Association gun lobby in Houston this weekend, in light of the “terrible tragedy.”
“We believe this week’s NRA meeting is not the right time to promote our product in Texas,” the company said, adding that its gun had been “criminally misused” in the attack.
With pressure on how Ramos was able to obtain the weapon of death, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has called for tougher gun laws in his state – where the attachment to the right to bear arms runs deep.
But in the wake of the shooting, President Joe Biden – who will accompany First Lady Jill Biden on Sunday – called on lawmakers to take up the gun lobby and “reform common sense guns.”
Gun control activists and lawmakers gathered outside the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, vowing not to waste their efforts in the run-up to the November midterm elections.
“The gun violence is on the ballot,” said Richard Blumenthal, a Democratic senator from Connecticut.
The March for Our Lives Advocacy Group – founded by survivors of the 2018 Parkland School shootings in Florida – has already called for nationwide protests on June 11 to push for gun control.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by NDTV staff and was published from a syndicated feed.)
