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60 MINUTES OF TERROR: Salvador Ramos barricaded himself in classroom with children as police dithered

The SWAT teams struggled to breach the classroom door, and it took another hour before the police announced that they had killed Ramos

The horrific school shooting in Texas has left everyone reeling with shock and heartbreak. The 18-year-old gunman, Salvador Ramos, reportedly managed to bypass a school resource officer and two cops on his way into Robb Elementary School, Uvalde, on Tuesday, May 24.

Once Ramos got to the classroom, he barricaded himself inside with the children for an hour. The SWAT teams were struggling to breach the locked door, and it took at least another hour before the police finally announced that they had killed the terrorist. By then, Ramos had murdered 19 children and 2 teachers.

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As per Daily Mail, SWAT teams arrived at the school at around the same time he was inside shooting the students. They rushed to the classroom but couldn't get inside and had to wait for a staff member to find a key and give them access to the door. While the SWAT teams struggled to get into the classroom, frantic parents gathered outside to get to their children as it had already been announced that there was an active shooter at the scene.

Videos show cops holding down parents and yelling, "We're taking care of it." Meanwhile, a survivor revealed that he and the other students were hiding in the classroom when the shooter arrived. He added that cops told them to "yell" if they needed help, but when one girl did so, she was found by Ramos, who held an AR-15. As per sources, the shooter bypassed the school resource officer "unimpeded" to make his way inside.

The resource officer has not yet been identified since there are at least two at the Uvalde elementary school. The two other law enforcement officers followed the shooter to the classroom, but he shot at them and then barricaded himself into the classroom with the children. After this, the tactical SWAT team arrived at the scene and took over.

The New York Times reports, "The first report of a gunman approaching the school came around 11:30 am on Tuesday. Moments before, the gunman, identified as Salvador Ramos, 18, had crashed a pickup truck in a ditch by the school after having shot his 66-year-old grandmother in the face in her home, just a few streets from the school."

Albert Vargas, an electrician, was at work in a house near Robb Elementary School and saw the crash. "I ran down there thinking someone got hurt. His look matched the black clothes he was wearing. He fired briefly at a nearby funeral home. And then he turns to me and popped two more rounds at close range, but misses, as well. His face was blank. There was no expression there. He looked like nothing mattered but the mission he was on. He fired the shots, ran, jumped a fence, and headed towards the school," he recalled.

"Parents were crying and some were fighting verbally with the police and screaming that they wanted their children," Marcela Cabralez, a pastor, told the New York Times. Miguel Palacios, a small-business owner, added, "The parents were on one side of the fence, the Border Patrol and police were on the other side of the fence, and they were trying to tear it open."