Here is a composite timeline of the Uvalde shooting. I am including a map for reference. I am sure that there are things that happened that aren’t on this timeline, but I tried only to include things I could confirm the time for. :
September 2021, the shooter asked his sister to help him buy a gun and she “flatly refused.”
February 28: The shooter was in a group chat on Instagram and there was a discussion of the suspect wanting to be a “school shooter.”
March 14, the shooter wrote in an Instagram post, “10 more days.” Another user replied, “‘are you going to shoot up a school or something?’ The shooter replied, ‘no and stop asking dumb questions and you’ll see.'”
May 17 the shooter legally purchased the first AR platform rifle at a local federal firearms licensee.
May 18 The shooter also purchased 375 rounds of ammunition
May 20, the shooter legally purchased the second AR platform rifle at a local federal firearms licensee.
May 24, the day of the shooting:
Sometime after 11 a.m. — Ramos shoots his grandmother in the face, according to Texas Public Safety Director Steve McCraw. Gilbert Gallegos, 82, who lives across the street from Ramos and his grandmother, heard a shot as he was in his yard. He runs to the front and sees Ramos speed away in a pickup truck
11:27 a.m. Authorities know from video that the exterior door, which the shooter later entered to get inside the school, was “propped open by a teacher.” The door was supposed to be locked and wasn’t supposed to be open.
11:28 a.m. The suspect vehicle crashed into a ditch. The teacher ran to room 132 to retrieve a phone. The same teacher walked back to the exit door, which remained open.
Two males at a nearby funeral home heard the crash and went to the crash scene. When they arrived at the crash scene, they saw a man with a gun exit the passenger side of the car with a backpack. They immediately began running.
Ramos began shooting at them but did not hit them. One of the males fell when he was running. Both males returned to the funeral home. Video showed a teacher reemerged from inside the school, panicked, and called 911.
11:30 a.m. A 911 call came in that there was a crash and a man with a gun.
11:31 a.m. The suspect reached the last row of vehicles in the school parking lot. He began shooting at the school while patrol vehicles got to the nearby funeral home. Multiple shots were fired outside the school. The patrol car accelerated and drove by the shooter and left the camera view.
11:32 a.m. Multiple shots were fired at the school.
11:33 a.m. The suspect entered the school at the door and began shooting into room 111 or 112. It was not possible to determine from the video angle which classroom he first fired into. He shot at least 100 rounds at that time, based on the audio evidence.
11:35 a.m. Three police officers with the Uvalde Police Department entered the same door as the suspect entered. They were later followed by another four-person team of Uvalde police officers and a deputy sheriff. Thus, there were at that point seven officers on the scene. The three initial police officers arrived and went to the door, but the door was closed. At least one officer received grazing wounds from the suspect.
11:37 a.m. There was more gunfire. Another 16 rounds were fired at 11:37, 11:38, 11:40, and 11:44.
11:43 a.m. The school posts on Facebook that the school is under lockdown, and then emails parents.
11:51 a.m. The police have been inside of the building for 15 minutes.
11:51 a.m. A police sergeant and state law enforcement agents start to arrive.
11:54 a.m. People are gathering outside the school. Tension is building between parents and police.
11:56 a.m. Parents are begging cops to do something. “Our kids, that’s what we’re worried about,” one mother can be heard saying on a livestreamed video. She adds, “Our kids are there, man! My son’s right there!”
11:58 a.m. A police officer pushes a man who is making a phone call outside the school, yelling at the people gathering to move across the street. “Six-year-old kids in there, they don’t know how to defend themselves from a shooter!” yells one person.
12:03 p.m. Officers continued to arrive in the hallway. There were as many as 19 officers in that hallway. At this time, a child in room 112 called 911 and spoke to a dispatcher for 1 minute and 23 seconds. She identified herself, but police have not released her name. The caller whispered that she was in room 112.
12:05 p.m. Some students and staff members who had been locked down in the cafeteria on the other side of the school are able to escape the school and flee. The police have been in the building for 30 minutes.
12:06 p.m. Some students in another classroom escape through a window.
12:09 p.m. A helicopter is now flying above the school, and people continue gathering on the streets in the area of the school.
12:10 p.m. The child from room 112 called back, and advised that multiple people in room 112 were dead.
12:11 p.m. A police officer with a megaphone announces to the crowd outside that “When the kids get moved, we’re going to move them to the back of the funeral home,” referring to Hillcrest Memorial Funeral Home across the street. “That’s where we want y’all waiting at,” he says.
12:13 p.m. There was third 911 call from the child inside the school.
12:15 p.m. Border Patrol Tactical team members arrive along with ballistic shields.
12:16 p.m. Another child called 911 and told a dispatcher that 8-9 students were alive inside classroom 112.
12:17 p.m. The school district posts on Facebook that there is an active shooter at the school and asks people to stay away.
12:19 p.m. Another person, this one in room 111, called 911. The person hung up when a student told her to hang up.
12:20 p.m. The police have been inside of the building for 45 minutes.
12:21 p.m. The suspect fired again, at least three shots. Dispatchers heard those shots over a 911 call that was in progress. Law enforcement moved down the hallway.
12:26 p.m. Many students are seen walking out of the school on the other side in a livestreamed video. The man recording recognizes one of the children. “Tell your mom hi. Tell her you’re OK,” he says.
12:30 p.m. The school district posts on Facebook that students who made it out of the school are being taken to an auditorium at the high school on the other side of town. The Border Patrol Tactical team has been on the scene for 15 minutes.
12:35 p.m. The police have been inside of the building for one hour.
12:36 p.m. Another 911 call came in that lasted 21 seconds. The caller, a student child, called back several seconds later. The child was told to stay on the line but be very quiet, and she said, ‘He shot the door.’
12:40 p.m. The school district edits its post on Facebook to say that the students are being taken to a civic center downtown instead of the high school to reunite with their guardians.
12:41 p.m. People continue to gather up and down the two roads that lead to school entrances.
12:42 p.m. An officer carrying a shield is seen running toward the building.
12:43 p.m. A child called 911 and asked dispatchers to ‘please send the police now.’
12:45 p.m. A man is filming the scene from outside of the school. “I’ve seen like 20 parents, maybe more, crying,” he says. “Wanting to know what’s happening to their kids. Because there’s still kids in there. And then, parents see that there’s ambulances taking the beds in.” The Border Patrol Tactical team has been on the scene for 30 minutes.
12:46 p.m. The caller said she could hear the police.
12:47 p.m. The child from 12:43 called again, begging for police to come rescue them.
12:50 p.m. Law enforcement officers breached the door using keys that they were able to get from the janitor. Both doors were locked when officers arrived. They enter the classroom and fire 27 times, killing the gunman. The sound of shots being fired could be heard over the phone. This happened 75 minutes after the police entered the building and 35 minutes after the Border Patrol SWAT team arrived.
12:51 p.m. The girl in room 112 is still on the phone with 911. Officers can be heard moving children out of the classroom, including her. When the call ends, she is outside.
As you look at this timeline, note that the police knew that there were children still alive in the classroom, because they were speaking with them on the telephone. The first seven officers were outside of the room where the shooter and the majority of the victims were located at 11:35. They were on the phone with some of those children from 12:03 throughout the rest of the incident, but cops still waited until 12:50 before entering the classroom. The first excuse was they were under fire. Then it became “we didn’t have the keys.” Once that excuse didn’t work, it became “we thought they were all dead.” It appears as though they will make the chief of the school district’s police department the scapegoat.
I wonder what the excuse will be tomorrow.
I am absolutely furious and disgusted that a town of only 15,000 people spends $4.1 million a year on their police department. You can read more about how police wasted time arresting parents while their kids were inside being massacred if you click on this link.
Sources:
- Heavy: 5 Fast Facts you need to know.
- Chron.com Timeline of events
- CNN: Timeline of Uvalde Shooting
- NY Times Interactive Timeline
