UVALDE, TX - MAY 26: A Uvalde police department officer, center, reacts as Victor Escalon, Regional Director of the Texas Department of Public Safety South, speaks during a press conference on May 26, 2022 in Uvalde, Texas. Pedro “Pete” Arredondo, the Uvalde CISD police chief is on the far right. (Photo by Eric Thayer/Getty Images)
Eric Thayer, Stringer / Getty ImagesVideo surveillance footage suggests that police never attempted to open the doors to two classrooms at Robb Elementary behind which alleged gunman Salvador Ramos massacred 19 students and two teachers during the May 24 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, according to a law enforcement source close to the investigation who spoke with the San Antonio Express-News's Brian Chasnoff.
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In the 77 minutes between when police entered the building and when they eventually breached the door to Classroom 111, killing Ramos, officers including Uvalde CISD Police Chief Pete Arredondo stood in the hallway for more than an hour, waiting for a tactical team to arrive and testing a large collection of keys on other nearby classroom doors. They were trying to determine which, if any of them, could help police gain access to the two rooms.
"Each time I tried a key I was just praying," Arredondo told the Texas Tribune's James Barragan and Zach Despart last week. However, few elements of Arredondo's account that day had previously been confirmed by other officers and personnel in the hallway with him.
Chasnoff's source went on to explain that while the doors at Robb Elementary are designed to lock automatically from the inside and typically can only be opened with a key, Ramos, carrying an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle, was able to enter Classroom 111 without any difficulty shortly after 11:30 a.m. that day, according to the footage.
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When police originally approached the door, Ramos fired, striking two officers with shrapnel and forcing the group to retreat. However, it’s possible the door had malfunctioned, the source said, and whether it was locked or unlocked the entire time police were hunting for a key is under investigation. Police eventually breached the door with a crowbar-like tool around 12:50 p.m
When speaking with Texas Tribune, Arredondo said the shooter had locked himself inside the room and described the doors at Robb Elementary as “reinforced with a hefty steel jamb, designed to keep an attacker on the outside from forcing their way in” which all but removed his team’s opportunity to kick in the door and take out Ramos before his massacre began.
