A massive trove of audio and video recordings including a 911 call connected to theMay 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary Schoolwere released by Uvalde officials Saturday after a prolonged legal fight. It was the result of a legal settlement involving major news organizations, including CBS News, after officials initially refused to publicly release the information.
Monday, August 12th 2024, 3:53 pm
By: CBS News
A massive trove of audio and video recordings including a 911 call connected to theMay 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary Schoolwere released by Uvalde officials Saturday after a prolonged legal fight. It was the result of a legal settlement involving major news organizations, including CBS News, after officials initially refused to publicly release the information. "Maybe he could listen to me because he does listen to me, everything I tell him he does listen to me," the man, who identified himself as Armando Ramos, the uncle of the shooter, said on the 911 call. "Maybe he could stand down or do something to turn himself in," Ramos said, his voice cracking. The caller told the dispatcher that the shooter, identified as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, was with him at his house the night before. Armando Ramos told the dispatcher his nephew had stayed with him in his bedroom all night and had told him that he was upset because his grandmother was "bugging" him. "Oh my God, please, please, don't do nothing stupid," the man says on the call. "I think he's shooting kids." The call came in about 1 p.m. on May 24, 2022, about 10 minutes after the shooting had stopped. Salvador Ramos was fatally shot by authorities at 12:50 p.m. He had entered the school at 11:33 a.m., officials said.
Uvalde city officials released nearly 600 items including police dash and bodycam videos, 911 calls, non-emergency calls, as well as documents and text messages.
Fourth-graderKhloie Torres, who survived the shooting, begged for help in a series of calls to 911, whispering into the phone that there were "a lot" of bodies and telling the operator: "Please, I don't want to die. My teacher is dead. Oh, my God."
At one point, the operator asks Khloie if there are many people in the room with her. "No, it's just me and a couple of friends. A lot of people are," she says, pausing briefly, "gone."
The delayedlaw enforcement response— nearly 400 officers waited more than 70 minutes before confronting the gunman in a classroom filled with dead and wounded children and teachers — has been widely condemnedas a massive failure. The Uvalde massacre was one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history.
Multiple federal and state investigations into the slow law enforcement response laid bare cascading problems in training, communication, leadership and technology, and questioned whether officers prioritized their own lives over those of children and teachers in the South Texas city of about 15,000 people 80 miles west of San Antonio.Families of the victimshave long sought accountability for the slow police response.
Two of the responding officersnow face criminal charges: Former Uvalde school Police Chief Pete Arredondo and former school officer Adrian Gonzales have pleaded not guilty to multiple charges of child abandonment and endangerment. A Texas state trooper in Uvalde who had been suspended was reinstated to his job earlier this month.
The newly-released footage shows Arredondo, whowas fired in August 2022, in the school during the chaos of the shooting.
"Whatever the problem getting in the f----- room is locked, he's got an AR-15 and he's shooting…he's stopped," Arredondo is shown saying on a cell phone in a school hallway.
In a CNN interview this week, when asked if law enforcement's response to the shooting was cowardly, Arredondo responded, "I strongly disagree, and again, opinions vary sir, and they're going to, but I can tell you that probably 100% of those people hadn't been in in a situation like that before."
Some of the families have called for more officers to be charged and filed federal and state lawsuits against law enforcement, social media, online gaming companies, and the gun manufacturer that made the rifle the gunman used.
Thepolice responseincluded nearly 150 U.S. Border Patrol agents and 91 state police officials, as well as school and city police. While dozens of officers stood in the hallway trying to figure out what to do, students inside the classroom called 911 on cellphones, begging for help, and desperate parents who had gathered outside the building pleaded with officers to go in. A tactical team eventually entered the classroom and killed the shooter.
Previously released video from school cameras showed police officers, some armed with rifles and bulletproof shields, waiting in the hallway.
A report commissioned by the city, however, defended the actions of local police, saying officers showed "immeasurable strength" and "level-headed thinking" as they faced fire from the shooter and refrained from firing into a darkened classroom.
