While police waited for more than an hour to enter rooms where a gunman murdered children and teachers last week in Uvalde, Texas, they might have known about 911 calls from inside the rooms, according to video obtained by ABC News.
According to the outlet, the video was filmed just outside the scene at Robb Elementary School. It appears to show a 911 dispatcher telling officers on the scene at Robb Elementary School that they were receiving calls from children inside the classrooms, which were connected via a bathroom. Salvador Ramos, the 18-year-old gunman, eventually fatally shot 19 children and two teachers.
“Child is advising he is in the room, full of victims,” said dispatcher captured in the video. “Full of victims at this moment.”
“Is anybody inside of the building at this...?” the dispatcher asked.
“Eight to nine children,” the dispatcher said later.
ABC News said the dispatcher’s information heard on the video appears to match the readout of the 911 calls provided last week by law enforcement officials. Indeed, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw said a child had called 911 “and said there’s eight to nine students alive.”
McCraw said last week said he did not have detailed information regarding whether the incident commander on the ground at Robb Elementary – Uvalde school district police Chief Pete Arredondo – was notified about the 911 calls.
“That question will be answered,” he said Friday. “I'm not going to share the information we have right now. Because I don't have – I don't have the detailed interview right now.”
Though the video apparently shows officers being told about the calls, ABC News said it is not clear “who on scene, if anyone, heard the calls coming in from the dispatchers.”
Other details of the video include: a moment where an officer can be heard warning bystanders to stay back because there is a man with a rifle, sounds that could be gunshots, moments where police can be seen rescuing children from inside the school by breaking through a window and pulling them out, and police leading people out of the school’s back door to safety.
Conflicting information regarding the timeline of events in Uvalde Tuesday as Ramos opened fire on the school have led to public outrage, including criticism from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. McCraw has also said decisions made at the scene were mistakes.
According to the Austin-American Statesman, a new timeline provided Friday by McCraw indicates Ramos traveled between the two classrooms for 77 minutes while the students called 911. As he did, around 19 police officers waited outside the room without attempting to break through the locked door. At 12:50 p.m., Border Patrol officers stormed the room and fatally shot Ramos.
Miah Cerrillo, an 11-year-old survivor of the tragedy who said she made at least one of the 911 calls with her dead teacher’s cell phone, told CNN that she and her classmates were watching the movie “Lilo and Stitch” in the shared classroom before the shooting began. She recalls Ramos moving between the connected classrooms and playing sad music loudly as they waited for police to enter.
To avoid being shot, Cerrillo said she smeared herself in her friend’s blood and pretended to be dead. Her family has set up a GoFundMe to cover Cerrillo’s therapy costs and medical expenses.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced Sunday that it will review law enforcement response to the mass shooting.
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