“We were asking and begging (authorities) to do something,” Jennifer Gaitan, whose daughter was at school when the shooting took place, told CNN Friday night, adding that an officer had a physical confrontation with her. . “I feel like they weren’t concerned about the real trauma that was going on inside.”

“They waited too long because I was here. And I’m not the only parent who witnessed it.”

At the press conference, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw said Uvalde’s first officers entered the school about two minutes after the shooter – and more than an hour before. that he is ultimately killed.

At one point – more than 45 minutes before the shooter was killed – up to 19 officers were standing in the hallway.

The shooter came out of a closet

The decisive action was taken when a unit of Border Patrol agents arrived on the scene. When they entered the classroom, the shooter came out of a closet and began shooting, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.

One of those officers was holding a shield and was followed by at least two others who engaged the shooter, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection official said.

The shooter is believed to have waited for officers to enter the room, then opened the closet and began shooting, the source said.

Law enforcement fired and killed Ramos around 12:50 p.m. — more than an hour after he entered the school building and began shooting into nearby classrooms, McCraw said.

The “bad decision” of a police chief

The police chief for the Uvalde school district — who McCraw said made the decision not to break into the classroom door, but didn’t mention his name — is Pedro “Pete” Arredondo.

“A decision was made that this was a barricaded subject situation,” McCraw said of the incident commander’s “thought process” at the time.

“Looking back, where I’m sitting now, of course, it wasn’t the right decision,” McCraw said of the call not to face the shooter. “It was the wrong decision. Period.”

McCraw declined to say whether Arredondo was at the scene during the shooting. CNN attempted to reach Arredondo at his home on Friday, but there was no response.

In previous news conferences hours after the shooting, the chief said the shooter was dead but provided little information about the attack, citing the investigation and not answering any questions.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott said Friday he wanted a full account of what happened, but added he had no say in whether the chief of the school district police had to be fired.

“As far as his employment status is concerned, it is something beyond my control and of which I have no knowledge,” the governor said, adding, “Every act of all these officials will be known, identified and explained to the public.”

Training manual: the officer’s first priority is to “confront the attacker”

Guidance on handling active shooter situations in the state’s Law Enforcement Commission training manual that was obtained by CNN states that “an officer’s first priority is to enter and to face the attacker”.

The 2020 manual says achieving this first priority and confronting the shooter “may include walking around injured people and failing to respond to calls for help from children.”

“As first responders, we must recognize that innocent life must be defended,” he says. “A first responder who doesn’t want to put innocent lives ahead of their own safety should consider another career field.”

All law enforcement officers in Texas are trained in these guidelines.

“Somehow someone has to answer for, you know, what was done,” said Garza, the young victim’s father, calling for accountability for how authorities reacted. “When someone here does something wrong, they have to pay for it, so what does the law have to pay, whoever is responsible, how are they going to try to fix it?”

“Someone has to be held responsible. Someone got it wrong,” he added.

So far, two funeral homes in Uvalde have announced visitation and funeral plans for several of the shooting victims, including Amerie Jo, according to posts on their websites.

“My daughter, she’s gone and we’re trying to get her to rest and be at peace,” Garza said.