Texas school shooting: As Uvalde funerals continue, more is learned about how those inside Robb Elementary responded to the terror

CNN
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With more funerals and visitations scheduled Wednesday for victims of the deadliest US school shooting in nearly 10 years, more changes in authorities’ narrative of how the May 24 massacre unfolded in the South Texas city of Uvalde are emerging.

The Texas Department of Public Safety, or DPS, now says the door the shooter used to access Robb Elementary was closed, though not locked, when he entered before killing 21 people there.

That’s a change from last week, when DPS Director Col. Steven McCraw said the back door had been propped open by a teacher. On Tuesday, its spokesperson Travis Considine told the Associated Press the teacher closed the door once she realized a shooter was on campus, but the door did not lock. The department’s press secretary confirmed Tuesday to CNN the AP report was accurate.

Nineteen children and two teachers were killed after an 18-year-old gunman entered adjoining classrooms and opened fire.

Tuesday’s clarification about the door represents just one of the shifts in authorities’ explanation of the massacre’s timeline. They face mounting questions over why 80 minutes elapsed from the time officers were first called to the moment a tactical team entered the locked classrooms and killed the gunman.

Meanwhile, families and friends have begun burying their loved ones, and the community continues to cope. In the sun-drenched town square, a park fountain is the centerpiece of a growing memorial honoring those lost.

Hundreds of flower bouquets ring the fountain, stacked alongside toys, stuffed animals, candles and letters in memory of the 21 killed. Framed posters show smiling faces, leaning against walls covered with hearts drawn and names written in chalk.

On a pathway leading to the square, visitors slowly walk past a row of crosses, stopping to pray or reflect on the devastating tragedy. Each cross – several feet tall and draped with flowers, balloons and messages of remembrance – carries the name of someone killed.

Ryan Ramirez, the father of Alithia Ramirez, said he waited for nearly 12 hours before learning she was killed. He described his 10-year-old daughter as “very lovable and kind.”

“She was just there for anybody that needed anything. And that was one thing that we all loved about her,” he told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Tuesday.

Alithia “loved drawing,” her father said, and when he met with President Joe Biden during his Uvalde visit on Sunday, Biden told him that he would have one of Alithia’s drawings displayed at the White House.

She “always had a crayon in hand, just going to town,” Ramirez said.

As the community mourns, more details are emerging about how those inside responded to the terror.

Robb Elementary educator Nicole Ogburn said she had just turned on a movie for her students when she saw someone carrying a gun outside her classroom window.

“I just, like, looked out the window and I see this guy with a gun walking up. And I just told my class, get on the ground, get on the ground, get to the corner,” Ogburn told CNN affiliates KABB/WOAI.

“I just kept hearing shots fired, and I just kept praying, ‘God, please don’t let him in my room, please don’t let him come in this room,’ and for some reason, he didn’t.”

Several 911 phone calls were made from the classrooms where the gunman unleashed his deadly onslaught, with children pleading for police to intervene, a timeline provided by the state DPS revealed.

Three people injured by the gunman remained hospitalized Tuesday at University Hospital San Antonio. The gunman’s 66-year-old grandmother, who was shot in the face before the attack on the school, is in good condition; a 9-year-old girl is in good condition; and a 10-year-old girl is in serious condition, the hospital said.

Enlarged photographs have been made into memorials to the 19 children and two teachers who died at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, last week. The children shown from left are: Eliahna

Meanwhile, the Uvalde school district police chief who was the incident commander during the shooting told CNN exclusively Wednesday he is in touch daily with the Texas Department of Public Safety but declined to answer further questions about the massacre.

Pedro “Pete” Arredondo has faced criticism for the decision to have officers posted in the hallway outside the classrooms where the shooting took place, waiting for more than an hour to intervene before a Border Patrol tactical team entered the room and killed the gunman.

Asked about reports he was not cooperating with DPS, Arredondo told CNN, “I am in contact with DPS every day.” Arredondo was wearing a badge and a gun when he spoke to CNN outside of his home in Uvalde.

In a separate interview with CNN outside his office, Arredondo said Wednesday he’s not going to release any information while funerals are ongoing.

“We’re going to be respectful to the family,” he said. “We’re going to do that eventually. Whenever this is done and the families quit grieving, then we’ll do that obviously.”

It’s the first time Arredondo has commented publicly since two brief news statements on the day of the attack, in which he said the gunman was dead but provided little information on the shooting, citing the ongoing investigation, and took no questions.

On Tuesday, DPS said Arredondo had not responded to a request for a follow-up interview with the Texas Rangers, who are investigating the shooting.

The school’s police department and the Uvalde Police Department are “still cooperating,” said Considine, the department’s spokesperson.

McCraw, the DPS director, said last week the person who made the decision not to breach the Uvalde elementary school classroom was the school district police chief, calling it the “wrong decision” to not engage the gunman sooner.

Texas’ largest police union, meanwhile, has called for its members “to cooperate fully with all official governmental investigations into actions relating to the law enforcement response to the Uvalde mass shooting.”