Law enforcement agencies hold press conference about school massacre in Uvalde 5/27/22 Transcript

Speaker 1: (00:18)
All right, everybody. We’re about to get started.

Steven McCraw: (00:26)
Good morning. Thank you for being here today. My name’s Steven McCraw Director of Texas Department of Public Safety. On Tuesday, the District Attorney for the 38th Judicial District Christina Mitchell requested that the Texas Rangers under the Department of Public Safety assume lead responsibility of this horrific murder of 19 innocent child and two adults.

Our goal today is to provide the parents, the community of Uvalde, the public as much information as we can on where we are on the investigation. We’re here to report the facts as we know them now, not to defend what was done, or to criticize what was done, or the actions taken. I’ll begin first and foremost with the timeline as we know it. Second, the second timeline I’ll discuss is the 911 timeline. Then, we’ll talk about the relevant social or digital media footprint of the subject. Then, we’ll also have plenty of time for questions at that point.

At 11:27, we know from video evidence, 11:27, the exterior door suspected of what the… Where we knew the shooter entered, Ramos, was propped open by a teacher. 11:28, the suspect vehicle crashes into the ditch as previously described. The teacher runs to the room 132 to retrieve a phone, and that same team teacher walks back to the exit door and door remains propped open.

There were two males, as reported by Regional Director Escalon yesterday. There were two males at a funeral home that when they heard the crash, they went to the crash scene. When they arrived at the crash scene before they got there, they saw a man with a gun exit the passenger side with a backpack, and they immediately began running. Ramos began shooting at them. Did not hit them.

One of the males fell when he was running. Both males return to the funeral home while they’re running. And then again we see through video, teacher reemerges inside the school in panic, and apparently calls 911. 911 call at 11:30. There was a crash, man with a gun.

11:31, the suspect reaches last row of vehicles in the school parking lot. 11:31, the suspect shooting began at the school while patrol vehicles got to the funeral home. I’ll point out where it is. Crash vehicle’s over here. Suspect was hiding behind the vehicle, started walking down and shooting into the classroom.

There was a discussion early on that an ISD, Consolidated ISD for Uvalde, was a resource officer, had confronted the subject. That did not happen as RD Escalon talked about yesterday. It was certainly stated in preliminary interviews, but often these preliminary interviews and cursory walkthrough doesn’t reveal the type of information and certainly, police officers, like anyone else, under stress sometimes witnesses get it wrong.

But the bottom line is that officer was not on scene, not on campus, but had heard the 911 call with the man with a gun, drove immediately to the area, sped to what he thought was the man with a gun to the back of the school, who turned out to be a teacher and not the suspect. In doing so, he drove right by the suspect who was hunkered down behind a vehicle where he began shooting at the school.

11:31, the suspect shooting in between the vehicle would’ve began while patrol vehicle gets to the funeral home. Multiple shots are fired outside the school at 11:31. Patrol car accelerates in the parking lot, drives by the shooter. That’s exactly what I was talking about. It was the ISD officer at that time.

He passes, then leaves the camera view. There’s multiple shots fired at the school at 11:32. At 11:32:27, 11:32:36. 11:33 is when the suspect entered the school at the door that I’m pointing to now.

11:33, the suspect begins shooting into room 111 or 112. It’s not possible to determine from the video angle that we have at this point in time. We do know this; that he shot more than a hundred rounds based on the audio evidence at that time. At least 100 rounds. 11:33, he started shooting in the classrooms, 111 or 112.

At 11:35, three police officers entered the same door the suspect entered. All three of those police officers work for the Uvalde Police Department. They were later followed by another four, a team of Uvalde police officers, three, and also a county deputy sheriff. So, a total of seven officers were on the scene.

The three initial police officers that arrived went directly to the door, and two received grazing wounds at that time from the suspect while the door was closed.

11:37, there was more gunfire. Another 16 rounds was fired at 11:37. One at 11:37 and 16 seconds, 11:38, 11:40, 11:44.

At 11:51, a police sergeant and [inaudible 00:06:43] agents started to arrive.

At 12:03, officers continued to arrive in the hallway, and there was many as 19 officers at that time in that hallway.

At 12: 15, we know that BORTAC members arrive. Not the entire BORTAC, but members of BORTAC, along with shields.

At 12:21, the suspect fired again; was believed to be at the door.

11:21, law enforcement moved down the hallway. At 11:50, they breached the door using keys that they’re able to get from the janitor because both doors were locked. Both of the classrooms that he shot into were locked when officers arrived. They killed the suspect at that time.

And now I’d like to go over the 911 timeline. It’s better than I read it than you listen to it. The caller identified, I’ll not say her name, but she was in Room 112 called 911 at 12:03. The duration of the call was one minute and 23 seconds. She identified herself and whispered she’s in Room 112. At 12:10, she called back, ” In room 12, advised her multiple dead.”

12:13, again, she called on the phone. Again at 12:16, she called back and said there was eight to nine students alive.

At 12:19, a 911 call was made and another person in Room 111 called. I will not say her name. She hung up when another student told her to hang up. At 12:21, you could hear over the 911 call, three shots were fired.

At 12:36, the 911 call, it lasted for 21 seconds. The initial caller called back, student child called back, and was told to stay on the line and be very quiet. She told 911 that he shot the door at approximately 12:43. And 12:47, she asked 911 to please send the police now. At 12:46, she said that she could hear the police next door.

At 12:50, shots are fired. They could be heard in the 911 call.

And at 12:51, it’s very loud and sounds like the officers are moving children out of the room. At that time, the first child that called was outside before the call cuts off. Additional information that we have is that there are 58 total magazines at the school related to the crime scene. 11 of those magazines were inside the school, three were on the suspect’s body, two in Room 112, six inside Room 111, five were on the ground, one was in the rifle. There were 32 magazines outside the school, but on school property, one just outside the school building, and 31 in the suspect’s backpack that he did not take into the classrooms with him.

There was 15 magazines at the crash site. There were two magazines at the suspect’s residence, for a total of 60 magazines. He had purchased and had a total of 1,657 total rounds of ammunition. 315 of those rounds were inside the school. 142 of those were spent cartridges, 173 were live rounds.

For those were spent cartridges. 173 were live rounds. 922 were outside of the school, but on school property. 22 of those were spent cartridges. 900 were live rounds. 422 were at the crash site. 22 were spent cartridges. 420 of those were live rounds. There’s 35 spent law enforcement cartridges total in the school. Eight of those were in the hallway. 27 were inside the classroom 111, where the suspect was killed. I had mentioned that I’m going to go over quickly, a digital timeline. One thing we talked about early and I want to correct something that was said early on in the investigation is that he posted on Facebook publicly that he was going to shoot his grandmother. And secondly, that he had shot her. And the third, that he was going to go shoot up a school that did not happen. It was actually on a message, was a Facebook messenger application to somebody else that he had a conversation with. We know that through his digital media footprint, and I’ll just do by date-time.

And Ramo asked his sister to help him buy a gun. She flatly refused. That was in September of ’21. He made I’ll avoid some of these and he had Instagram, a form of group chat. And it was discussed that Ramos being a school shooter. That was on February 28th, 2022. On March 1st, 2022, there was an Instagram he had with four people. It was a chat. He discussed him buying a gun.

On March 3rd, 20 on March 3rd, 2022 was another four person chat quotations, “Word on the street is you were buying a gun.” Ramos replied, “Just bought something rn.” On March 14th and there was an Instagram posting by the subject in quotations, “10 more days.” A user replied, ” Are you going to shoot up school or something?” The subject replied, “No. And stop asking dumb questions. And you’ll see.”

I know you have many questions and I’ve agreed that stay as long as we can. And answer as many of those questions that we can. If I can’t answer, because we don’t know definitively right now, I’ll simply say that. And it continues to be a preliminary investigation. There’s certainly over hundreds of interviews has been conducted, will continue to be conducted. And there’s thousands of leads that have been pursued, not consecutively, but concurrently. And thanks to our federal and local partners. And I do want to mention behind me, we’ve got the FBI Special Agent in Charge. We also have an ATFs Special Agent in Charge or ASAC. And of course, who else do I got behind me?

With Texas Rangers if there’s any specifics that I haven’t covered, that I might need their particular support on. I do want to cover one thing quickly though, before I go to questions and that’s some of the questions that we already received. And one of those is going around now that in fact, the subject had been one of the two arrested by the Texas Rangers and the local police back in 2018. And that’s not the case. He was not one of the individuals. In fact, we had found no links association of relationships in that investigation. Clearly it was a threat. It was back in 2018. The two juveniles were charged was attempted or conspiracy to commit capital murder. There’s no question that we thought. And we had evidence and certainly the district attorney agreed that these juveniles one 13, one 14 years old was a threat to Uvalde. And there was a discussion at that time, even the senior year of the one that was 14 years old, which would make it 2022. However, it was not the subject. Questions. [crosstalk 00:15:55]

Speaker 2: (15:57)
Give your answer and Tony is going to translate in Spanish after your done.

Oh yeah. One thing I failed to say is that when we’re done we have Tony Penga with us. He’s going to translate into Spanish what the answers and the questions are afterwards. [crosstalk 00:16:12]

Speaker 3: (16:12)
Thank you for doing this and answering any questions if possible. You say there were 19 officers gathered in the hallway where Ramos was. What effort to try to break through that door. What effort was the law enforcement trying to break though the back door or another door, to get inside that classroom?

None at that time.

Speaker 3: (16:12)
Why?

The on scene commander at the time believed that it had transitioned from an active shooter to a barricaded subject.

Speaker 3: (16:54)
Sir, you have people who are alive, children who are calling 9-1-1 saying, ” Please send the police.” They are alive in that classroom. There are lives that are at risk. That’s not-

We’re well aware of that.

Speaker 3: (17:12)
Right. Why was this decision made not go in and rescue these children?

Again, the on scene commander considered a barricaded subject and that there at the time and there were no more children at risk. Obviously based upon the information we have, there were children in that classroom that were at risk and it was in fact still an active shooter situation and not a barricaded subject. [crosstalk 00:17:37]

Speaker 4: (17:36)
Director…

Speaker 5: (17:53)
[inaudible 00:17:53]

The question simply is this, there was 40 minute gap. And if the 9-1- 1 operators were aware that children were alive in that classroom, why weren’t officers notified of that? And if that’s the case, why didn’t he take action? That’s the question. And again, I’ll go back to the answer. But right now is that it was considered. The decision was made on the scene. I wasn’t there, but the same point in time a decision was made that this was a barricaded subject situation. There was time to retrieve the keys and wait for a tactical team with the equipment to go ahead and breach the door and take on the subject at that point. That was the decision. That was the thought process. That particular point in time.

Speaker 6: (19:10)
[inaudible 00:19:10]

What?

Speaker 6: (19:15)
Police dispatch. What can you tell parents that were here waiting and asking for the police to go in?

Speaker 7: (19:24)
Is there an apology for them?

There was 19 officers in there. In fact there was plenty of officers to do whatever needed to be done with one exception is that the Incident Commander inside believed they needed more equipment and more officers to do a tactical breach at that point. That’s why BORTAC was requested on the scene. As soon as they were there, they executed, they searched or at least a dynamic entry and went in. And of course that was not till 12: 57.

Hey, stand by. All right? I got it. Hey, from the benefit of hindsight where I’m sitting now, of course, it was not the right decision. It was the wrong decision period. There’s no excuse for that. But again, I wasn’t there. But I’m just telling you from what we know that we believe there should have been an entry as soon as you can. Hey, when there’s an active shooter, the rules change. It’s no longer a barricaded subject. We don’t have time. You don’t worry about batter primers. And by the way, Texas embraces active shooter training, active shooter certification. And that doctrine requires officers- We don’t care what agency you’re from. You don’t have to have a leader on the scene. Every officer lines up, stacks up, goes and finds where those rounds are being fired at and keep shooting until the subject is dead. [crosstalk 00:20:54]

Speaker 8: (21:00)
Televista News, Mexico sir. Obviously with this being a town on the border it’s very difficult to understand how most powerful nation in the world, your student have access to high end weapons. And this keeps coming over and over and over again. And now again, children I don’t mean to [inaudible 00:21:38] How can you keep this from happening again in the communities of Texas. And second, how does a 18 year old kid that works at a Wendy’s making only the minimum wage able to buy a $5,000 weapon?

Well, to answer the last he used a debit card first. But to your point, it’s very expensive and a debit. Card’s not a credit card. That means he had money in the bank. So why and how is being looked at right now? And I’ll tell you this hundreds of more, thousands of more leads are being looked at right now because we haven’t answered all the questions. We haven’t gotten into the why. We know the individual was also into cyber gaming in that regard and group gaming in that. So we got a lot of questions that are out there.

… group gaming in that. So a lot of questions are out there and we’re seeking answers, but we’ve got an obligation. We’ll continue to update you when we find something out.

Crowd: (22:09)
Are you apologizing to the [inaudible 00:22:10]?

Moderating Officer: (22:09)
The woman in the… yes.

Female reporter 1: (22:10)
[inaudible 00:22:10] I have two questions. The first one is you said that Border Patrol had the special team on site and the local police did not allow them to go into the building. Can you elaborate why this is?

The Border Patrol agents, the BORTAC agents that were in the building did line up. They’re part of the 19 that I talked about, and the entry team, ultimately the entry team that went in. But I can tell you that they were told just as any other officer was told, and others, even command staff that came on board, is that the incident commander at the time was, it’s believed, that in fact it was a barricaded subject, that we had time. There was no kids at risk.

[inaudible 00:22:54] he mentions on Instagram he had talked about having chats and group chats and talking to people. Why wasn’t he on any radar? Nobody-

I wished he was. I wished he was, because then there’s no question. And I’ll say this right now, and every time we have one of these and there’s copycats, okay? And we need the public, just like we did back in 2018, that was the public that came forward, that we’ve got two people that are about to shoot up a school or planned to shoot the school. It’s imperative on the public when you get something, just because the guy sounds like he’s a nut, he may be a nut, but just because it sounds like well… Impossible to do, he may be intended to do, as I’ve read the timeline based upon the chats that he had. So we need everyone when we have a threat to life like that, to take it seriously and report it, because ultimately this is tragic. What do you tell the 19… Well, the parents of 19 kids, or the families of two teachers?

Crowd: (23:55)
[Inaudible 00:23:55].

Hey. [inaudible 00:23:55]. Yes sir.

Go ahead.

Male speaker 1: (23:55)
[inaudible 00:23:55] Like for tactical gear, by 12:15 you had at least 15 officers and shields on scene.

Yeah.

Male speaker 1: (24:04)
Yet you did not breach the door until 12:52.

Hey, like I’ve said it before, first of all, when it comes to an active shooter, is you don’t have wait on tactical gear. Plain and simple, you’ve got an obligation. What I know now, absolutely, it was an active shooter. Because, keep in mind in the doctrine of active shooters, you can transition from an alert… From an active shooter situation, to a barricaded subject, or a barricaded with hostage subject. But, if shooting continues, and you have any reason to believe that there’s individuals alive in there, you’ve got an obligation to move back to an active shooter posture and that means everybody at the door.

Crowd: (24:45)

There. There sir.

[inaudible 00:24:45]. At 12:03 you had a 911 call to say there were children alive in class 112, 8 to 9 children. Is that [inaudible 00:24:54] children still alive and why was the School Resource Officer off campus? And did Vivaldi’s squad respond to the scene?

Well, Vivaldi has a part-time SWAT team, number one. The ISDs, they’ve limited officers. I think… What is it? What’ve you got? Six?

Background officer: (25:17)
Six. For the school we have six.

They’ve got six. Yeah. The independent consultant, independent school district has six officers and they didn’t have one posted at that location. And someone said, “Hey, what do you tell the parents?” Bottom line is, or someone talked about and said, “When there’s kids in the room, why wasn’t there an entry?” Because it was believed, at the time that the subject was stationary, barricaded, there was no risk to other children. Again, on retrospect from where I’m sitting right now, clearly there was kids in the room. Clearly, they are at risk. And oh, by the way, even when he goes back to shooting, there may be kids that are injured. They may have been shot, but injured and it’s important for life saving purposes to immediately get there and render aide.

Crowd: (26:04)

Man in the blue.

Man in Blue: (26:05)
Where was the Resource Officer? Why was he not on campus?

He was not on campus.

Man in Blue: (26:11)
Why? Where was he?

Again, we’ll have all those answers down the road.

Crowd: (26:23)

Lady in the purple.

Hi. Thank you for doing this. Most of the community is Hispanic. A bunch of them are undocumented. To them it would mean the world if you could apologize to all those parents who were outside, screaming, trying to get in. You responded that you’ve got it under control. Their help could have been great. Some parents were able to get their children out of the school. Not as a Police Officer but as somebody that loves the government, as a parent, as a human being. What do you say to those parents who are about to bury their children?

Well, first I want to say that the Consolidated Independent School District Officers were there early. There was four of them and they immediately began evacuating the school and did that throughout the process. So keep in mind, that was going on. And what do I say to the parents? I don’t have anything to say to the parents, other than what had happened. We’re not here to defend what happened. We’re here to report the facts, so they have the facts.

Crowd: (27:25)
[Inaudible 00:27:25]. Okay, so who was [inaudible 00:27:26].

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. [inaudible 00:27:29].

Crowd: (27:29)
[inaudible 00:27:29]. Were any of the family members gassed or tased outside the building?

I’m sorry. Oh, gas. I don’t have any information on that.

Over here in the blue. Leeland. Leeland.

Oh, one second though. However, we did review of what DPS officers arrived on the scene, what they did and looked at those instances.

The blue. The blue. The blue.

Male reporter 2: (27:54)
You know the parents of the children who died are watching right now and they’re hearing you say, that not everything that could possibly have been done, as humanly fast as it could be done, was done. Are they owed an apology from somebody? The incident commander in the police department here or not-

If I thought it would help, I would apologize. But hey, let me say this.

Hold on, hold on.

When you go back to the timeline, again, I want to go back and I’m not defending anything, but you go back in the timeline, there was a barrage, hundreds of rounds were pumped in, in four minutes into those two classrooms. Then anything else, any firing afterwards was sporadic and it was at the door. So the belief is, that there may not be anybody living anymore and that the subject is now trying to keep law enforcement at bay or enticing to come in to suicide by contact. I understand that. I’ve recorded that.

Here. Here. Don’t yell over your colleagues please.

Jack Morphet: (29:04)
Jack Morphet from the New York Post. The first of two questions, first of all exactly how was the gunman barricaded in the room? Was it just a simple matter of him locking the door behind him? And secondly, did he buy all 1657 rounds from Oasis Outback using that debit card?

Well, I might answer the first one but the, why, on the second one I don’t have. The first one, that each door can lock from the inside and where both doors were locked from the inside so the subject, when he went in, he locked the door. He came out one time into the hallway, went back in and locked the door because at the time that the officers went in both doors were locked. They got a key from the janitor, and used it.

Crowd: (29:45)

So your first call came in inside the classroom at 12:03 and you reached it at 12:51. How many students died in those 48 minutes?

I don’t have that answer. We’re looking at it right now.

Crowd: (29:57)

Hold on.

Yeah.

Right here.

Okay.

Go ahead. Go ahead.

Julia Vargas: (29:57)
Two questions. Julia Vargas from CNN. One, why wasn’t the school placed on lockdown? And two, while this may be the most unpopular question here today, what is on your thoughts? How are you feeling? You stayed here the whole time yesterday.

Yeah, thanks a lot. Forget how I’m doing. I’m not the parents of those children. You forget about me or officers and stuff like that. We take an oath to uphold the law and protect people and anytime something tragic like that, we want to know why it happened and if we can do better next time is the bottom line and call it like it is and it’s tragic. Quite frankly, I mean, there shouldn’t have been anybody killed. Ideally we’ve been able to identify this guy as a suspect and address it before he even thought about attacking on the 24th.

Crowd: (31:09)

Green. Green. Go ahead. Go ahead.

There’s a lot of ammunition, a lot of rounds. So are there other people that you’re looking at to arrest? Is that it?

We’re looking at other people. Absolutely. Everybody he’s been in contact with. We’re looking at anything. Links, associations, people may have known something and we’ll continue… And may have been involved in some chat room gaming along with him. So there’s nobody that we’re not going to talk to and look at and certainly I can assure you that the District Attorney is very proactive and very concerned about this and that if any evidence that we bring to her, that someone was an accomplice or an enabler or didn’t do what they should have done. If it’s in violation of law and it meets the probable cause of standards, I have no doubt that she’ll take care of businesses like she did back in 2018, when we had two juveniles plot a capital murder at the school.

Crowd: (32:04)

Right down in front of you. Right there. Right there.

You had 911 calls at 12:10, 12:13, 12:16. The shooter wasn’t killed until 12:50. Did any of those 911 callers survive?

Crowd: (32:14)
All of them?

Yes. I can’t tell you that with certainty, but more than one survived.

How many children got pulled out alive?

Hey. I’m sorry. What?

Can you give us update on the number of officers injured and their conditions where they’re now, and also were there any windows in the classroom that the officers could shoot into?

Yes, there were windows that the… I’ll go backwards and right over here, I’ll move over here. Something shot into these windows right here as he’s approaching the door, right? So the children were vulnerable all the time going through. We don’t have any recording of any of the children maybe injured, but not dead the way he shot this particular area, right?

But not dead. He shot in this particular area. All right. As to the answer in terms if someone could, could have shot opposite in that regard, so I don’t have the answer to that quite frankly. Alright. We’re looking at a number of different things in terms of ballistics and things like that, what you can do, keep in mind, when you’ve got children in here.

Reporters: (33:34)
Will you come back to mic?

We got your children in here. Excuse me, yeah.

All right. And we’re looking at this some from a tactical standpoint and everything in terms of looking backwards. And certainly one of the things is, what was the access at 111 and 112 in that regard. Also, there’s other access points as well.

I want to say one thing, say one thing, one thing I didn’t point out. Okay. Is that when we’ve got him going into these rooms right here is a Jack and Jill restroom between. So not unlike Santa Fe, the classrooms are separated, but they’re really connected. So you can move back and forth between those two classrooms.

Reporters: (34:16)
Was the incident commander receiving the information coming via the 9-1-1 call, and if so, why not? And if so, due to the level of investigation [inaudible 00:34:31]

Well that we’ll put that question will be answered, but I don’t have the, I’m not going to share the information we have right now. Cause I don’t have the detailed interview right now.

Reporters: (34:45)
A barricade situation. Did any police officers go in and get their own kids while the parents were outside?

Not that I’m aware of. No. There, go ahead. Yes, please.

Reporters: (35:00)
How many children called 9-1-1? And do you know for a fact, if any of those children died?

I know for two, for certain did, and those two did not die.

Reporters: (35:11)
[crosstalk 00:35:11] Why was that propped open door still propped open, even after the incident was occurring with shots being fired at the funeral home?

Bottom line is we reported what happened. That back door was propped open. It wasn’t supposed to be propped open. It was supposed to be locked. And, and certainly the teacher that went back for her cell phone, it propped it open again. So that was an access point that the subject used.

Reporters: (35:40)
[crosstalk 00:35:40] You have said in hindsight mistakes were made and Democratic Congressman is now calling for the FBI to investigate the response here.

Yeah.

Reporters: (35:52)
Who is going to be held accountable?

Well, first of all, we welcome the FBI. There’s a reason why there’s the FBI special agent charge behind me right now. They play a viable role. And again, this is about finding facts and reporting facts. As quick as we can. This is not about trying to defend or it’s not about trying to assess or, or even be hyper critical. It’s about the facts and sharing whatever we learn on the facts as quick as we can and be as transparent as we can. The media, but more importantly, the parents and the public, the citizens of Uvalde and Texas.

Reporters: (36:24)
[crosstalk 00:36:24] Who was the incident commander and has that …

The chief of police, the consolidated independent school district is the incident commander. It’s his school. He’s the chief of police. Okay.

Again, I’m not going to discuss discipline, but there’s an ongoing criminal investigation. There’s ongoing criminal investigation.

Reporters: (36:47)
Is that teacher being investigated and working with the police?

Again, I’m not going to get into that …

Reporters: (36:54)
Which was responsible for making that decision to not [inaudible 00:37:06]

The chief of police of the consolidated independent school district. He, he was convinced. He was convinced at the time that there was no more threat to the children and that the subject was barricaded and that they had time to organize with the proper equipment to go in. The subject already had hit, three officers and hit two officers. And I didn’t answer the final question. A third, a border patrol agent was grazed as well, but no police officer was seriously injured.

Reporters: (37:34)
During that time, were the officers hearing shots fired inside that classroom?

Yes. Yes they did. He shot, and I went through the timeline before where he continued to shoot periodically, sporadically. The last, I think already gave you the timeline. I’m sure I went through it, but the last time that the shot right before the entry was he shot at 12:21.

Reporters: (38:15)
At the officers or at the children?

No, not at the children. We don’t know yet. We believe it was at the door is what he fired at.

Reporters: (38:23)
What kind of equipment did law enforcement have in each specific moment of the response?

We know that beginning, one of the Bortech agents arrived. They had three ballistic shields.

Speaker 9: (38:44)
This will be the last question.

Reporters: (38:45)
The San Antonio fire chief said one of the kids died in the hospital. How many kids could have been saved had they been [inaudible 00:39:03]?

I don’t know.

No, that’s fine. Yeah. I’m that’s let’s answer the question.

Reporters: (39:15)
What do you think? What do you think you should have had that you didn’t?

Well, I’ve already said that. First of all, Texas embraces and teaches the active shooter doctrine, the active duty shot doctrine, as long as there’s kids, and as long as someone’s firing, you go to the gun, you find them, you neutralize them period. And there’s some nuances with going transition to a barricaded subject, also transitioning to a hostage situation. And of course that the decision at the scene was that this is still a barricaded subject that did not go back to an active shooter situation.

Reporters: (39:52)
Where is the police chief, and why is it here to take our questions?

Well, because I’m here to address the latest timeline and facts that we know. You’re certainly welcome to reach out to them.

I defer to, you want to get questioned?

Reporters: (40:21)
[crosstalk 00:40:21] You’ve now been on the scene for several days. Two things. What exactly is your role in this investigation and hearing all of this and given that the FBI might be efforts to study after shooters situations like this, do you think this is something that requires an independent investigation by whether a federal agency, you guys, or someone else?

Oliver Rich: (40:47)
Thank you for the question. So my name is Oliver Rich. I’m the special agent in charge of the San Antonio division. First I want to say, I understand there are a lot of questions and there’s a lot of frustration in the public and our heart goes out to the families and the victims in this tragedy. I will say our role here remains the same. We are here to assist in this investigation to provide the support to the community, to the best of our ability. We’ve had 200 people here for over four days. We have people working all across the country to support this community and to support this investigation. We are continuing in that vein. We have victim specialists here working with people in the community, and we will continue to do that. If the facts bear out that there is a federal nexus, then the FBI will conduct an appropriate investigation at that time. But for now we continue in this to support the Texas rangers.

How many more questions?

Reporters: (41:51)
Uvalde Police Department posted February, 2020 that they familiarized themselves with the school and they did the training to do just what they were supposed to do. How come they were not in lead, or their commanding officer was not in lead when they were familiarized with this training and they should have done what they were posting on Facebook they were doing? Who dropped the ball?

I don’t have the answer to that question.

Reporters: (42:17)
President Biden be here on Sunday. Your thoughts on that? Do you have a message for the President?

Yeah. Welcome here. Welcome to Texas. And this is community’s been hit hard and I think it’s noble that the president’s going to be here to recognize that the pain and suffering that this community is going through. And that’s, I think that’s what leadership is. That’s why, that’s why Governor Abbots here. That’s why Lieutenant, leaders go to where the problem is, and right now the problem is in Uvalde, Texas. [crosstalk 00:42:49]

Reporters: (43:42)
So in 2020 they took the training, right?

Law enforcement agencies hold press conference about school massacre in Uvalde 5/27/22 Transcript

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