By Leena Nasir
A police officer on the scene of the school shooting in Texas came forward to reveal his frustration about being told to stand down on May 24 as children were being massacred inside Robb Elementary School.
The unnamed officer, who has served for a decade, described what he and his fellow officers felt when they were given orders to wait outside of the school rather than storm in to take down the gunman, People reported. “There was almost a mutiny,” the officer said. “We were like, ‘There’s a f*cking gunman in the school, we hear gunshots, and we’re just going to stand here with our thumbs up our asses?’ We wanted to go in and save lives. It was the most frustrating situation of my entire career,” the officer said, according to People. “We felt like cowards.”
Breaking: BORTAC agents waited with tactical gear for approximately 30 minutes, following the instructions of local law enforcement in Uvalde police, before finally forming a “stack” and moving in to take out the shooter, per 2 law enforcement officials
— Julia E. Ainsley (@JuliaEAinsley) May 27, 2022
An 18-year-old named Salvador Ramos stormed into Robb Elementary School May 24, killing 19 children and 2 teachers before he was gunned down, according to The Guardian. The police have since been heavily scrutinized for standing outside of the school while the massacre unfolded. It has since been revealed that Pete Arredondo, the Chief of Police in the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, ordered his officers to wait for backup and more equipment before initiating a tactical breach, People reported. The police remained outside of the school for more than an hour. (RELATED: Public Safety Director Admits Police Error In Texas School Shooting As He Reveals Children Repeatedly Called 9-1-1)
NBC News: Salvador Ramos the shooter in Uvalde, TX was found with 15 bullet holes in him after being shot by CBP BORTAC agents and local law enforcement, multiple senior U.S. law enforcement officials tell @JuliaEAinsley
— Tom Winter (@Tom_Winter) May 26, 2022
Arredondo claims to have believed the shooter was barricaded alone in a classroom. During a statement issued to the public, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed that in fact, children were frantically calling for help from within the very classroom the shooter was in. He has since admitted police error in the handling of this active shooting.
“It felt cowardly to stand off and let this punk, this kid, this 18-year-old asshole just go in and do whatever he wanted to do. There was a lot of arguing, a lot of cussing, a lot of people who were saying that we should just say f— it and go in, but then what? We needed to have a plan, and the commander didn’t have a plan,” the unnamed officer said.
New: Border Patrol tactical agents who breached the classroom and killed the shooter acted on their own initiative after mounting frustration, sources tell @JuliaEAinsley
— Ken Dilanian (@KenDilanianNBC) May 27, 2022
NBC News correspondent Ken Dilanian reported that it ended up being Border Patrol Tactical Agents who came to the rescue by breaching the classrooms and fatally shooting the gunman.
NBC’s Julia E. Ainsley posted to Twitter, “Border Patrol tactical agents who breached the classroom and killed the shooter acted on their own initiative after mounting frustration, sources tell.”
