Harrowing 911 calls from inside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas reveal the teachers’ and students’ terror and panic as they desperately waited for police to come rescue them amid the deadliest school shooting in American history.
The more than 20 emergency calls recently obtained by The Texas Tribune and ProPublica lay bare how trapped students begged dispatchers for police help — but it took officers more than 40 minutes to burst into the room and confront the gunman.
The calls chronicle the miscommunication that took place on May 24, when 19 students and two teachers were brutally gunned down, as officers said they were unaware that anyone besides the gunman was inside the classrooms.
But in others, even schools Police Chief Pete Arredondo seemed well aware there were victims inside classrooms 111 and 112.
An investigation found that state and local law enforcement officials were largely to blame for the mass shooting, as they stood back in the hallways of the elementary school for more than an hour while school shooter Salvador Ramos continued his barrage.
The Uvalde School District has since fired its police department, while families and local officials are calling on Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw to resign. He insists his department did nothing wrong.
But the newly-released emergency calls seem to tell a different story, with agents seemingly unaware of the children begging for help, even after 10-year-old Khloie Torres reported, ‘I’m in classroom 112. Please hurry, there is a lot of bodies.
‘Please get help, I don’t wanna die. My teacher is dead. Oh, my God.’
The 10-year-old was eventually able to make it out of the school alive, even as her friends around her died from their gunshot wounds.
Khloie Torres, a 10-year-old student at Robb Elementary School, called 911 twice on May 24 to beg for police help as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos continued his rampage. Her father, Ruben, a former Marine, described her actions that day as ‘incredible.’ Torres was able to survive the mass shooting
Khloie stayed on the line for more than 17 minutes before, her father, Ruben, said, before she hung up — fearing Ramos was getting closer, ‘taunting’ them.
And when the police did not respond nearly 30 minutes later, the brave student called again as she hid in classroom 112, asking once more: ‘Can you tell the police to come to my room?’
Ruben, a former Marine, said his daughter’s heroism was ‘incredible’ that day, as he blasted officer’s bungled response.
‘There was no control. That dud had control the entire 77 minutes. The police didn’t go in,’ he told the Tribune. ‘That’s your job: to go in.’
STEM teacher Monica Martinez was among the first to call 911 as she hid in a closet in her classroom at Robb Elementary School
An investigation found that state and local police stood back for more than an hour as the gunman continued his rampage
The first 911 calls about a school shooter came in just minutes after the 18-year-old shooter crashed his truck near Robb Elementary School, walking out with an AR-15.
‘He’s inside the school at the kids,’ a man could be heard yelling at 11.33am on May 24.
The gunman was able to fire more than 100 rounds by the time Uvalde police dispatchers received another call two minutes later, when an adult could be heard making ‘shh’ sounds for nearly 45 seconds before the phone cut out.
Soon after, STEM teacher Monica Martinez also called the police as she hid inside a closet in her classroom.
‘There’s somebody banging at my school,’ she reported. ‘I’m so scared.’
It was only when a new round of shots rang out from behind the closed door of adjoining classrooms 111 and 112, that Uvalde Police Sgt Daniel Coronado sprinted outside.
He told police dispatchers between labored breaths: ‘He’s inside the building. We have him contained.’
Coronado then asked for ballistic shields and requested someone call DPS, but still insisted the shooter is ‘contained.
‘We’ve got multiple officers inside the building at this time,’ he told the dispatchers. ‘We believe he’s barricaded in one of the offices. Male subject is still shooting.’
But in reality, Ramos was still in the building locking himself in classrooms with young children.
Four minutes later, the Tribune reports, a dispatcher asked someone to check room 111, where the shots were coming from. It was the classroom of fourth-grade teacher Eva Mireles, the wife of police officer Ruben Ruiz.
‘See if the class is in there right no, or if they’re somewhere else,’ the dispatcher advised.
That is when one unidentified police officer came on the radio, saying: ‘The classroom should be in session right now. The class should be in session, Ms. Mireles.’
At that point, another officer could be heard gasping saying: ‘That’s going to be Ruben’s girl.’
‘Oh no, oh no,’ Coronado muttered under his breath.
At 11.48am, Ruiz informed officers that his wife had been shot, telling them she called him and said she was ‘dying.’
Officers then escorted Ruiz outside, taking away his weapon for safety, according to an ensuing investigation.
But they still did not attempt to enter the classroom, with one police lieutenant later telling investigators they were waiting for DPS and Border Patrol to arrive ‘with better equipment like rifle-rated shields.’
Soon after, it seems, misinformation started spreading rapidly, with one Uvalde police dispatcher saying at 11.50am that Uvalde Schools Police Chief Pete Arredondo was ‘in the room with the shooter.’
And seven minutes later, an officer asked if any children were inside with the gunman, to which an officer replied: ‘No we don’t know anything about that.
‘Everything is closed like the kids are not in there.’
Meanwhile, children stuck inside classrooms 11 and 112 kept calling 911, begging for help even when they ‘suspected’ it was not safe to speak.
Audio from 911 calls obtained by the Texas Tribune reveal that Uvalde Police Officer Ruben Ruiz informed officers that his wife, fourth-grade teacher Eva Mireles, left, had been shot. But they still did not respond
Body camera footage previously showed how officers were told to stand back as shots continued to be fired inside the elementary school
The first call from one of the classrooms came in at 12.03pm when a child could be heard apparently trying to report a school shooting.
By 12.10, Khloie called saying: ‘There is a lot of bodies,’ adding that her teacher had been shot, but was still alive.’
As she stayed on the phone, the Tribune reports, another city police dispatcher answered a call from DPS and erroneously reported that Uvalde Schools Police Chief Pete Arredondo was inside the classroom with the gunman.
In one of the calls, a dispatcher wrongly says that Uvalde Schools Police Chief Pete Arredondo was inside confronting the gunman, when he actually stood back despite apparently being aware there were victims inside the classrooms
‘I have the school chief of the police department in room 111 or 112 with the active shooter, and they’re still standing by,’ the dispatcher said, before asking their DPS counterpart if they have ‘anybody else to send out to help out.’
‘We’re sending everybody that we can, um, heading out there,’ the DPS dispatcher responded. ‘But do you have any injuries, fatals, anything?’
The dispatcher said that only one female had been shot, and perhaps an officer was injured.
At that point, another dispatchers voice crackled onto the line notifying that she was speaking to a child stuck inside the building.
‘The child is advising he is in the room full of victims, full of victims at this moment.’
It is unclear whether the DPS dispatcher or the other dispatcher heard that information.
But soon, it seems, officers became aware that there were at least some fatalities in the shooting, with a state trooper’s body camera capturing an officer saying: ‘There’s victims in there dude.’
An officer responded, ‘We need to get in there.’ But still, they did not move.’
More calls from students started flooding the lines in the ensuing few minutes, but Uvalde County Constable Emmanuel Zamora wrongly suggested the gunman might have already shot himself.
And by 12.20pm, Arredondo himself seems to admit that there are children inside the classrooms.
He could be heard telling another officer: ‘We have victims in there. I don’t want to have anymore, you know what I’m saying.’
Just one minute later, though, Ramos fired again, prompting at least some officers to approach the classrooms before they were stopped.
Arredondo then decides to speak directly to the shooter saying: ‘If you can hear me, sir, please put your firearm down, sir. We don’t want anyone else hurt.’
Khloie’s final call to police came in at 12.36pm that day, once again telling officers: ‘There’s a school shooting’
It was only after Border Patrol agents finally breached the classroom around 1pm that DPS agents started escorting the children out and tending to their wounds
Khloie’s final call to police came in at 12.36pm that day, once again telling officers: ‘There’s a school shooting.’
‘Yes, I’m aware. I was talking to you earlier,’ the dispatcher responded. ‘You’re still there in your room? You’re still in room 112.’
‘Yeah,’ the 10-year-old replied.
‘OK. You stay on the line with me, do not disconnect.
‘Can you tell the police to come to my room?’ she asked again, saying she was telling everyone to stay quiet as her father had taught her.
‘I’ve already told them to go to the room.’
But two minutes later, Khloie once again asked for help, and the dispatcher once again tried to reassure her.
It was only after Border Patrol agents finally breached the classroom around 1pm that DPS agents started escorting the children out and tending to their wounds.
At that time, one could be heard saying: ‘Oh man, I guess there was more kids in the room.’
‘Yeah,’ another replies. ‘He must have had some hostages.’
Vincent Salazar, grandfather of Layla Salazar who was killed in the school shooting at Robb Elementary, holds a report released by the Texas House investigative committee on the shootings at Robb Elementary School
In the months that have followed, the Texas State Legislature found ‘multiple systemic failures’ in law enforcement’s response to the shooting.
The report said that officers ‘failed to prioritize saving the lives of innocent victims over their own safety,’ amidst a chaotic response scene where the people in positions of authority assumed somebody else was in charge.
Arredondo had claimed he did not know he was in charge of the police response that day.
But legislators say better trained and experienced state and federal authorities should have helped local police who were out of their element.
‘These local officials were not the only ones expected to supply the leadership needed during this tragedy,’ the report noted, ‘Hundreds of responders from numerous law enforcement agencies – many of whom were better trained and better equipped than the school district police – quickly arrived on the scene.’
‘In this crisis, no responder seized the initiative to establish an incident command post,’ the report said, ‘Despite an obvious atmosphere of chaos, the ranking officers of other responding agencies did not approach the Uvalde CISD chief of police or anyone else perceived to be in command to point out the lack of and need for a command post, or to offer that specific assistance.’
Arredondo was fired in August over the failed response, and just last month, the entire school police force was suspended.
Texas DPS Director Steven McCraw (pictured) claimed he and his cops ‘did not fail’ the Uvalde community during the botched response over the school shooting
Meanwhile, DPS Director Steven McCraw claimed his officers ‘did not fail’ the Uvalde community during the massacre.
He said he would gladly step down from his department if it was found to be at fault, amid calls from angry parents and community parents calling on him to resign.
‘If DPS as an institution failed the families, failed the school or failed the community of Uvalde, then absolutely, I need to go,’ McCraw said last month.
‘But I can tell you this right now, DPS as an institution, ok, right now, did not fail the community, plain and simple.’
While admitting that errors were made by law enforcement as a whole during the shooting, McCraw said culpability ultimately fell on the school district’s police force, who were in charge as police waited an hour before engaging with the gunman.
Brett Cross (above), who lost his nephew Uziyah Garcia, demanded McCraw step down during a hearing over the police response
Brett Cross, who lost his nephew Uziyah Garcia, was the first to confront McCraw, demanding the officer step down over the botched response.
‘We’re not waiting any longer. Our families, our community, our state has waited long enough,’ he said.
Cross and other family members were joined by Texas Senator Roland Gutierrez, who condemned McCraw for trying to lay the brunt of the blame on the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Department.
‘[DPS] is failing today by continuing to not disclose all of the information that is important to us today, and dribbling out — again, sanctions against low level cops, officers, troopers — when in fact we need to look at the people that were supervising those people and the people that were making decisions,’ Gutierrez said.
‘This agency needs to make restitution to these victims,’ he added. ‘And take actions that nothing like this never happens again.’