NO LESSON LEARNED: Cop posing as 'intruder' gets into Robb Elementary school same way Salvador Ramos did
UVALDE, TEXAS: A Texas safety inspector, who was posing as an intruder, was recently able to saunter unnoticed into a Uvalde school as a devastating new assessment also faulted a "flawed medical response" for failing to save some of the 21 killed in a mass shooting at Robb Elementary. The inspector was able to get into one campus’ cafeteria through a back door that did not latch, which is uncannily similar to how Salvador Ramos, an 18-year-old psychopath, entered Robb Elementary before killing 19 fourth-graders and two teachers.
At least a dozen relatives of the shooting victims were present for the horrifying disclosure, which was made during a Uvalde school board meeting on Monday, December 19 night. Seven months after one of the deadliest mass school shootings in US history, grieving family members were indignant that "somebody just walked right in," according to KSAT.
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The inspector masquerading as an intruder tried to enter three different schools in the grief-stricken neighborhood as part of a state-mandated security audit, the meeting was informed. The investigator strolled inside one school unchallenged. Gary Patterson, the interim district superintendent, acknowledged the blunder and told the gathering that the continued security gap is "really 100% my responsibility." He added, "We have to secure those areas," as reported by New York Post.
Patterson said, “The amount of money we have been working with in district on all of these projects if we’re going (unintelligible) -- the line is about $4.9 million." According to Patterson, the district invested about $5 million in grants and money for safety and security upgrades. These funds can be used for salaries, cameras, new doors, fencing, and equipment upgrades for the police department. The work isn't finished yet, though. “Zero percent completion because those have been back-ordered. We’ve run into supply chain issues, materials issues,” Patterson stated when asked why work on the campus's replacement doors for Uvalde High School hasn't begun.
According to Patterson, there are currently no plans to add secured vestibules on any campuses. “Those bullet-resistant materials are difficult to get right now, and that’s why the vestibules have been delayed,” he said.
The meeting took place hours before a devastating joint investigation by the Texas Tribune, ProPublica, and the Washington Post investigating a supposedly "flawed medical response" that may have "undermined the chances of survival for some victims" was published.
Even after the shooter was declared dead, doctors were prevented from driving ambulances up, and crucial helicopters were forced to wait 3 miles away, according to the report, while police waited 77 minutes to finally put a stop to Ramos' carnage.
In the heartbreakingly chaotic circumstances that followed the shooting, workers reportedly even trampled on some of the victims as officers raced to pull out the dead rather than giving priority to those who were still alive. According to the investigation, which included previously unreleased video and papers, many medics were kept away even after Ramos was dead and the active shooting had ended, leaving inexperienced troopers to administer CPR in their stead.
Three of the victims, Jacklyn "Jackie" Cazares, 9, Xavier Lopez, 10, and their teacher Eva Mireles, 44, were rescued from the classroom still alive but subsequently died from their wounds. The anguished bodycam video showed a Border Patrol medic frantically attempting to revive a shot youngster who seemed to be Xavier, according to the report.
“I can still feel the heart,” medic Andrew Aviles had yelled, according to interviews he later provided to detectives, which were interspersed with weeping. “I need a f–king plane. I need a helicopter down. I need to get a kid inside there!” he had yelled, the report stated, adding that it would be at least another 15 minutes before a helicopter landed close to the school. The child was given CPR by a trooper who did not have a Texas EMT or paramedic license for more than 30 minutes before the child was taken to a nearby hospital and confirmed dead.
“If the cops had done their job, the medics might’ve had a chance,” Xavier’s father Abel Lopez told the outlet. The boy’s mother, Felicia Martinez, added, “I’m so full of anger. I don’t know how to put into words how much I am hurting.”
Another piece of the video showed teacher Mireles, who had survived the devastation, being consoled by her husband, a school police officer refrained from rushing in to save her. "You’re fine. You’re fine,” officer Ruben Ruiz attempted to reassure his wife, who had put a plastic bag over her arm to use as a makeshift tourniquet and warned her remaining students she would probably die.
Records show that when the teacher's heart stopped outside the school, emergency personnel desperately tried to keep her alive on the sidewalk before, 16 minutes after the entrance to the building had been forced open. The ambulance remained where it was as emergency personnel performed CPR on the woman for nearly 40 minutes before determining that she was dead.
The largest holdup, though, was the 77 minutes it took police to storm the room after receiving 911 calls from children inside pleading for assistance. “Had medics gotten to her quickly, there’s a good chance she would’ve survived,” Babak Sarani, director of critical care at George Washington University Hospital, said.