After Texas shooting, police accused of delaying action
The 18-year-old assailant killed 19 children and two teachers before being shot dead by police on Tuesday May 24 in Uvalde.
AP - Jae C. Hong
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
The author of the Uvalde school killings on Tuesday May 24 was able to stay inside the establishment for more than 40 minutes, before being killed while many parents outside begged the police to intervene.
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With our special correspondent in Uvalde,
David Thomson
The parents who were in front of the school from
the first minutes of the killing
recount a scene of absolute chaos.
They arrived themselves armed with firearms with the firm intention of going to save their child, even if it meant confronting the shooter, ulcerated at waiting for the police to intervene.
This is the case of Celeste, a 30-year-old mother who says she came to school with her revolver.
But the police prevented her from entering and it took more than 40 minutes for a border police officer to intervene and shoot the killer.
Celeste regrets that it was not done sooner.
“
I am angry that no one has moved before, although I understand that the police have their own rules of intervention.
They may have been afraid for themselves, afraid that the families would go inside, but there were so many police and so many weapons and assault rifles,
Celeste testifies.
They should have moved.
It would have allowed us to save a few more children.
Instead of waiting for that Border Patrol agent to act.
I wish we had saved more children.
»
►Also read: Headlines: time for meditation after the Uvalde shooting in Texas
From the first minutes, two police officers were injured by the shooter trying to stop him.
But then several videos show onlookers pleading with law enforcement to intervene while the killer was inside, entrenched in that same classroom where he was able to kill those 19 children and their teacher.
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