On Tuesday, May 24, 19 students and two teachers were killed in the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. The gunman, Salvador Ramos, bought two assault rifles for his eighteenth birthday just a week before the shooting. He reportedly shot his 66-year-old grandmother and proceeded to crash a truck into a ditch before heading toward the elementary school.
According to a timeline of events from authorities acquired by CNN, these were the events that followed:
11:30 am: The first 911 call to police was made with the report of a car crash and a man with a
gun outside of the school
11:31 am: The shootings start outside the school
11:32 am: Ramos starts shooting at the school
11:33 am: Shooter begins shooting into a classroom. More than 100 rounds were fired.
11:35 am: Seven officers are on the scene and three enter the school building, followed by three
more officers and a sheriff
11:43 am: Rob Elementary announces its lockdown status on Facebook
11:51 am: More officers arrive
12:03 pm: 19 officers are in the halls and a student makes a 911 call
12:10 pm: A 911 call from the same student is received who reports that multiple people are
dead
12:15 pm: Border Patrol’s tactical unit BorTac team arrives
12:16 pm: The student calls again, saying only eight to nine students are alive
12:19 pm: A different 911 call is made but immediately hung up
12:21 pm: Ramos starts firing again. In another 911 call, three shots being fired can be heard.
More officers move down the hallway.
12:36 pm: A 21-second 911 call with a student saying, “He shot the door.”
12:43-12:47 pm: The student asks to “Send the police now.”
12:50 pm: Law enforcement breaches the door and kills the suspect.
Specifics of the shooting are still being investigated.
There is some debate surrounding the shootings, mainly revolving around how law enforcement handled the incident. Officials in Texas reported that as Ramos was inside the classrooms, officers didn’t take any action as they waited for a tactical team to arrive. It took more than an hour for the officers to unlock the classrooms and seize the gunman. The school district police chief Pedro Arredondo was the one who made the decision not to breach the classrooms. However, Texas Governor Greg Abbott is mainly dependent on the officials’ accounts of the shooting event, and he has not commented on Arredondo’s employment status.
The gunman, Salvador Ramos, reportedly threatened school shootings on Yubo, a social media app, and posted about his shootings on Facebook. According to the LA Times, just 15 minutes before arriving at the school he posted on Facebook, “I’m going to shoot an elementary school.” And according to CNN, Ramos was threatening several teenage girls through the Yubo app of rape and school shootings. However, most users who were in contact with Ramos did not take the threats seriously to report him. Still, Hannah, an 18-year-old Yubo user from Ontario, Canada, said Ramos to Yubo in early April, but Ramos was allowed back on the platform after a temporary ban. As investigations continue, President Biden is scheduled to visit Uvalde on May 29.
The deadly massacre at Rob Elementary school was one of the most fatal school shootings in history. Below are some ways you can support the community:
Robb School Memorial Fund– First State Bank of Uvalde
Robb Elementary School Shooting – GoFundMe
Texas Elementary School Shooting Victims Fund – GoFundMe
Uvalde Strong Survivors Fund – funds will go directly to victims’ families and survivors
Uvalde Strong Fund – emergency relief funds for the Uvalde community
Plainview-Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School will be conducting a peaceful walkout on June 1 to honor victims of the school shooting in Uvalde during period 6. In addition, June 2 is “Wear Orange Day,” kicking off National Gun Violence Awareness Weekend. A grassroots movement founded the annual event in 2015. Since the organization’s conception, it has taught about gun violence’s varied, complex causes and possible solutions.
