Texas cops reveal there was NO armed guard on campus when gunman walked through unlocked door

Texas cops have revealed that there was no armed guard on campus when the gunman arrived on Tuesday which allowed him to walk ‘unobstructed’ through an unlocked door and into the building where he slaughtered 21 people. 

At a press conference on Thursday afternoon, Victor Escalon, the Regional Director for the Department of Public Safety South Texas, said Salvador Ramos walked through an unlocked door ‘unobstructed’ and that there was no guard ‘readily available’. 

It contradicts earlier reports that he fired at a school resource officer. 

Ramos entered the school at 11.40am, 12 minutes after crashing his truck outside the school and walking towards campus with his AR-15. That is when police were alerted to the scene. 

At 11.44am, the first cops entered the school. Ramos shot at them and they retreated. 

It’s unclear if he had already shot the kids and teachers in the fourth grade classroom by then, or if he went on to attack them after those cops retreated. 

It then took an hour for specialized SWAT teams to arrive. At 1.06pm, the incident was declared over after Ramos was shot dead. 

In the meantime, 150 cops were gathering outside. Some of them were filmed pinning parents to the floor and some were even placed in handcuffs, according to witnesses. 

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‘He walked in unobstructed initially. He was not confronted by anybody. Four minutes later, law enforcement are coming in to solve this problem,’ Escalon said. 

When the first cops entered the building, he fired at them, injuring at least two of them. The cops then retreated, leaving him to carry on with his killing. 

‘They hear gunfire, they take rounds, get back and take cover… they don’t make entry initially because of the gunfire they are receiving. They are calling for additional resources, tactical teams, we needed body armor, precision rifles, negotiators. 

‘They are also evacuating students. There’s a lot going on,’ he said.

It’s unclear if there was meant to be a resource officer at the school that day. There are four in the district and there are nine schools, including four elementary schools, a junior high and a high school.   

On Thursday, Escalon claimed that most of the shooting occurred early in the standoff and that the only shots fired once cops were there were to keep them at bay. 

Now, there are questions over why it took so long to catch the gunman and whether or not any of the kids could have been saved.

‘There are a lot of possibilities, there was numerous officers at that classroom. Once we interview all those officers and find out what they were thinking, we’ll have a better idea,’ he said. 

Javier Cazares, whose nine-year-old daughter was murdered, says cops were ‘just standing there’ and waiting for protective shields to arrive at the scene before they went in. 

‘They said they rushed in and all that, we didn’t see that,’ he told The New York Times, adding that many were ‘just standing there.’ 

‘There were plenty of men out there armed to the teeth that could have gone in faster. This could have been over in a couple minutes,’ he said. 

He added that police were faster to escort Beto O’Rourke out of the press conference yesterday when he started heckling the governor than they were to get into the school. 

Angel Garza, whose daughter was killed, was handcuffed after trying to run into the school when he heard that a ‘girl called Amerie’ had been shot. He later found out that she was among those who died while giving medical aid to other children who escaped. 

Derek Sotelo, 26, who works in a tire shop nearby, said parents were begging to be let into the school.  

‘They were just angry, especially the dads. We were wondering, “What the heck is going on? Are they going in?” ‘The dads were saying, “Give me the vest, I’ll go in there!’ 

Frustrated parents were standing outside the school begging cops to go inside when the shooting was unfolding. 

Javier Cazares, whose nine-year-old daughter was murdered, says cops were ‘just standing there’ and waiting for protective shields to arrive at the scene before they went in. 

‘They said they rushed in and all that, we didn’t see that,’ he told The New York Times, adding that many were ‘just standing there.’ 

‘There were plenty of men out there armed to the teeth that could have gone in faster. This could have been over in a couple minutes,’ he said. 

He added that police were faster to escort Beto O’Rourke out of the press conference yesterday when he started heckling the governor than they were to get into the school. 

Angel Garza, whose daughter was killed, was handcuffed after trying to run into the school when he heard that a ‘girl called Amerie’ had been shot. He later found out that she was among those who died while giving medical aid to other children who escaped. 

Derek Sotelo, 26, who works in a tire shop nearby, said parents were begging to be let into the school.  

‘They were just angry, especially the dads. We were wondering, “What the heck is going on? Are they going in?” ‘The dads were saying, “Give me the vest, I’ll go in there!’ 

One child told KENS 5 that he was able to hide under a desk, but that a girl who yelled out ‘help’ when police arrived was executed. 

‘When the cops came, the cop said: “Yell if you need help!” And one of the persons in my class said ‘help.’ The guy overheard and he came in and shot her. The cop barged into that classroom. The guy shot at the cop. And the cops started shooting,’ the boy said. 

One shocking video shows them even holding some parents back as they tried to get inside. 

The footage shows a parent being pinned to the ground by an officer, while another carrying a taser stands guard nearby. 

Other footages shows parents begging the cops: ‘What are you doing!? Get inside the building!’  

Another woman could be heard to say ‘They’re trapped inside’ as howls of pained anguish rang out in the background. 

It was unclear at what time the footage was shot. It also emerged Wednesday that Customs and Border Patrol agents who rushed to the scene had to grab a key from school staff to open the door of the classroom where the bloodbath took place.

That is because they were unable to break the door down themselves.  

The first 911 call was received at 11:32am on Tuesday, and the gunman was killed at 1pm – after a Border Patrol agent was given a key to the door, behind which the gunman was barricaded with the fourth grade class. 

Javier Cazares, whose fourth grade daughter, Jacklyn Cazares, was killed in the attack, said he raced to the school when he heard about the shooting, arriving while police were still gathered outside the building.

Upset that police were not moving in, he raised the idea of charging into the school with several other bystanders.

‘Let’s just rush in because the cops aren’t doing anything like they are supposed to,’ he said. 

‘More could have been done. They were unprepared.’

He added: ‘There was at least 40 lawmen armed to the teeth but didn’t do a darn thing until it was far too late.

‘The situation could’ve been over quick if they had better tactical training, and we as a community witnessed it firsthand.’ 

One woman was yelling at the police outside the school, said Juan Carranza, 24, who lives opposite. 

He said she was screaming: ‘Go in there! Go in there!’

Carranza said the officers did not go in.

Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw told reporters that 40 minutes to an hour elapsed from when Salvador Ramos, 18, opened fire on the school security officer to when the tactical team shot him, though a department spokesman said later that they could not give a solid estimate of how long the gunman was in the school or when he was killed.

‘The bottom line is law enforcement was there,’ McCraw said. 

‘They did engage immediately. They did contain (Ramos) in the classroom.’

Meanwhile, a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation told AP the Border Patrol agents had trouble breaching the classroom door and had to get a staff member to open the room with a key.

Cazares said he wanted answers from local authorities as to why the shooter was not stopped before or during the attack.

‘I’m a gun owner and I do not blame the weapons used in this tragedy,’ he said.

‘I’m angry how easy it is to get one and young you can be to purchase one.’  

The massacre is the worst school shooting in the United States since Sandy Hook in 2012, when 20 children and six teachers were killed.

Ramos on Tuesday first shot his 66-year-old grandmother Cecilia Gonzalez in the face, leaving her severely injured, before stealing her pickup truck and driving towards the school.

Unable to drive, he crashed into a ditch and then ran to the school on foot, where he was met by an armed security guard.

Yet he was still able to enter the school and kill 21 people – and was not stopped until around 1pm, when a Border Patrol agent backed up by a tactical team shot him dead.  

One of those involved in training schools how to deal with an active shooter lost his wife in Tuesday’s tragedy.

Ruben Ruiz, 43, a veteran detective and SWAT team member, works as a police officer for the school district, and on March 22 held an active shooter drill at the school.

His wife Eva Mireles, 44, was one of the two teachers killed by Ramos on Tuesday.  

Uvalde, home to 16,000 people, is 80 miles west of San Antonio.

Steve McCraw, director of the Texas department of public safety (DPS), said on Wednesday that a ‘brave’ school resource officer ‘approached him’ and ‘engaged him’ – but added that ‘gunfire was not exchanged.’ He did not explain why.

The New York Times reported that their sources said at least one armed law enforcement officer from the Uvalde school district was at the school, and that officer exchanged gunfire with the gunman, but the gunman was able to get past.

Ramos was carrying an AR-type rifle, which he had bought the week before, on turning 18.

He purchased one of the rifles on May 17, and the following day he bought 375 rounds of 5.56mm ammunition. Ramos purchased another rifle on May 20, and posted pictures of the guns on Instagram.

He was also wearing ‘a tactical vest carrier with no ballistic panels,’ said Lt. Chris Olivarez, the DPS’s spokesperson.

Ramos then made it into the school, running down a hallway to two adjoining classrooms.

He barricaded himself inside the fourth grade classroom run by teachers Irma Garcia, 46, and Mireles.

‘And that’s where the carnage began,’ McCraw said.

All of the 19 children who died were inside the one classroom.

Officers were unable to enter it, The New York Times said.

Olivarez said some of the officers were shot by the gunman, so others began breaking windows around the school trying to evacuate children and teachers.

Ramos remained there until a tactical unit from the Border Patrol killed the gunman, shortly after 1pm, according to state police reports.

Olivarez said ‘tactical law enforcement’ forced their way into the classroom, where ‘they were met with gunfire as well, but they were able to shoot and kill that suspect.’

The unnamed agent who shot and killed Ramos is believed to be from the Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC), which has specialized agents dispersed throughout the United States.

The BORTAC agent, whose identity has not yet been revealed, rushed into the school without waiting for backup.

Ramos was behind a barricade, returning fire, but the border patrol agent managed to shoot and kill the gunman before he could claim more victims.

‘They came in from opposite sides. The BORTAC agent ended up exchanging gunfire with the shooter, killed the shooter, and I am told that the agent was injured in his leg,’ Olivarez told Fox News .

‘They are trying to figure out if he was shot in the leg or hit by shrapnel.’

BORTAC is headquartered in El Paso, Texas, and the U.S.-Mexico border is only 80 miles away – explaining the presence of the agent from the unusual tactical unit.

The unit is unique in that it conducts training and operations both in the United States and in other countries ‘in furtherance of the US Border Patrol’s mission’, according to CBP.

Multiple teams of Border Patrol agents raced to the school, according to Jason Owens, a top regional official with the Border Patrol.

A number of the shooting victims are children of Customs and Border Protection agents.

‘It hit home for everybody,’ said Owens.

McCraw praised the officers and denied there had been a failure – emphasizing that the arriving officers ‘engaged him’ and were able to ‘keep him pinned down in that location.’

Asked about the delay, he replied: ‘Obviously, this is situation we failed in the sense that we didn’t prevent this mass attack.

‘But I can tell you those officers that arrived on the scene and put their lives in danger — they saved other kids.

‘They kept him pinned down.’

He said the team was ‘very proud’ of that.

Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, also heaped praise on the law enforcement officials.

‘The reason it was not worse is because law enforcement officials did what they do,’ Abbott said on Wednesday.

‘They showed amazing courage by running toward gunfire for the singular purpose of trying to save lives.

‘They were able to save lives. Unfortunately, not enough.’

Meanwhile, a depressingly familiar picture was emerging of the gunman, who was described by friends, colleagues and relatives as a troubled loner with anger issues.

His mother, Adriana Reyes, 39, told DailyMail.com on Wednesday her son ‘wasn’t a violent person’.

Reyes said she was ‘surprised’ he opened fire, but admitted her son was someone who ‘kept to himself and didn’t have many friends’.

She denied that they had a poor relationship, but would not address claims she was a drug addict, whose son ditched her to live with his grandmother.

‘My son wasn’t a violent person. I’m surprised by what he did,’ she told DailyMail.com – speaking from her mother’s bedside in San Antonio.

She said her mother ‘with her left hand, was able to hold my hand,’ adding that she cannot smile but knows she is there.

She said doctors do not know what her mother’s prognosis is.

‘I pray for those families. I’m praying for all of those innocent children, yes I am. They [the children] had no part in this.’

She continued: ‘I had a good relationship with him. He kept to himself; he didn’t have many friends.’

She said the last time she spoke with him was last Monday, on his birthday, adding: ‘I had a card and a Snoopy stuffed animal to give to him.’

Ramos is the son of Reyes and Salvador Ramos, 42 – both of whom have a criminal history, DailyMail.com can confirm.

Salvador Sr. has a criminal history going back to 2000, when a Texas Court report shows he was sentenced to 180 days in jail for an unspecified misdemeanor, and was ordered to pay $875 at Uvalde County Court.

He then committed another misdemeanor just one month later and was ordered to pay another $375.

Two years later, on July 29, 2002 he was again arrested – this time for an assault that causes bodily injury against a family member, according to public records.

He was again sent to prison for 180 days.

In 2005, he faced another misdemeanor charge and was sentenced to a maximum of 30 days in prison, and by April 2011, Ramos again faced charges – this time for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and possession of marijuana, and faced a maximum of two years in prison.

It is unclear what Salvador Sr’s relationship was with his son, though he lived nearby.

Salvador’s mother, meanwhile, was arrested in June 2003 for property theft of less than $500. It is unclear how long she served for that offense.

She was also arrested on misdemeanor charges in 2005 – though it is unclear what precipitated that arrest.

Neighbors said the younger Salvador Ramos’ relationship with his mother was strained.

Ramos’ neighbor Ruben Flores, 41, said the shooter and his mother would often have screaming matches, with police being called to the home on multiple occasions.

In since deleted Instagram videos, Ramos had allegedly filmed his mother interacting with police.

Classmate Nadia Reyes claimed: ‘He’d call his mom a b***h and say she wanted to kick him out… He’d be screaming and talking to his mom really aggressively.’

Flores, meanwhile, told the Washington Post how he had tried to be a father figure to Ramos but that the situation at home only worsened as he got older.

Jeremiah Munoz, an alumnus from the local high school who used to play Xbox games with Ramos, also told the New York Times he would often hear him arguing with his mother through the microphone – and his mother would scream back at him, telling him he needed to go to school and he was doing nothing with his life.

Munoz said Ramos would often leave his mother’s house and stay with his grandmother for several days after a big fight – and over the past year he has been spending more and more time with his grandmother.

Ramos’s mother’s boyfriend, Manuel Alvarez, told DailyMail.com he still often stayed in his room on Hood Street, where he would repeatedly hit a punching bag by himself.

Speaking from the front porch of the three-bedroom house at the end of the dirt road, he said: ‘Salvador was a loner.’

He added: ‘He didn’t have many friends. Occasionally a ‘friend’ came over,’ he continued, but noted the last time he saw he saw a friend over at the house was about six months ago.

Alvarez, 62, told DailyMail.com that he is shocked by Ramos’s actions.

‘I never expected him to do what he did. He’s quiet and kept to himself most of the time. I really only had a handful of conversations with him,’ Alvarez said.

‘He stayed to himself; I really didn’t have a relationship with him. He didn’t talk much, he was a loner.’

He said his bedroom was unassuming, containing only a punch bag he liked hitting, a TV and a bed.

Alvarez told the DailyMail.com that Ramos wasn’t allowed to let anyone in the house, and noted that about two months ago Ramos and his mother got into an argument over the wi-fi issue.

‘I’m not exactly sure what it was about, I stay out of it,’ Alvarez said.

Following the argument, Alvarez said, Ramos packed his belongings and moved in with his grandmother, Celia Gonzalez, a few miles away.

The last time Alvarez said he saw Ramos was a week ago when he stopped by their house to pick up some pizza.

‘He was on good terms with his mother as far as I know,’ he said.

Gonzalez was reportedly in the process of evicting the mother over her drug use in the days before Tuesday’s killing spree.

On the morning of the shooting, one neighbor told local news channel Newsy that he witnessed Ramos arguing with his grandmother, claiming he was ‘angry that he did not graduate’.

His former colleagues at Uvalde High School – which he had dropped out of – graduated on Monday.

Other reports said Ramos and Gonzalez were fighting about a cellphone bill, although it was described as a ‘minor argument’.

His grandfather, Ronaldo Reyes, 72, said that the teenager lived in a front room and slept on a mattress on the floor.

Reyes told ABC News he had no idea his grandson purchased two AR-15s nor that he kept them in the house.

Under a new Texas law passed in September, those aged 18-21 could buy guns if they had a protective order, because they were at risk of family violence, stalking, prostitution or sex trafficking.

The law also removed the requirement for a permit for a handgun. Rifles were already permitted in Texas without licenses.

Reyes, a convicted felon, is not allowed to have guns inside his home, he said, and if he knew Ramos was keeping weapons there he said he would have turned in his grandson.

‘I hate when I see the news, all those people that get shot, I’m against all that,’ Reyes said.

‘I say, ‘Why do they let these people buy guns and all that? Those stupid – whatever they shoot.”

Reyes said he did not think his grandson was dangerous, noting that he had tried to encourage his grandson to attend school, but he would just shrug in response.

‘These kids these days think they know everything,’ he said.

At school, Ramos was a bullied loner, picked on because of a lisp, a habit of wearing eyeliner, his clothes and because he came from a poor family.

Santos Valdez told the Washington Post that he used to be friends with Ramos and played online shooter games such as Fortnite and Call of Duty with him, until the pair stopped talking as Ramos’s behavior ‘deteriorated.’

Valdez said Ramos had showed up to the park one time with cuts all over his face, initially claiming he was scratched by a cat before admitting that he did it to himself with a knife.

Stephen Garcia, who considered himself Ramos’s best friend in eighth grade, said he was ‘bullied by a lot of people’ including for over a photo of himself wearing eyeliner which led to ‘gay’ taunts.

Garcia said Ramos dropped out of school when he moved away to another part of the state, and the two had lost touch.

Others confirmed that Ramos had stopped attending classes, and did not intend to take part in graduation this summer.

Instead, he got a job at a local Wendy’s restaurant.

A colleague there described Ramos has having an aggressive streak.

She told the Daily Beast he walked around with a pair of boxing gloves at the park, asking people to fight him and filming it.

He also menaced co-workers, asking one of the cooks: ‘Do you know who I am?’

‘He would be very rude towards the girls sometimes… and he would also send inappropriate texts to the ladies,’ the former colleague said, asking for her name not to be used.

Jocelyn Rodriguez, 19, a Wendy’s employee, told The New York Times that when she heard Ramos was the shooter, she was initially shocked, but then less surprised.

She knew him to have a bad temper and to snap at people.

He said he had a tendency to pick fights with co-workers, and would often talk about how much he hated his mother and grandmother, whom he told her did not let him smoke weed or do what he wanted.

Earlier this month, he started picking fights with co-workers again and bragging about quitting his job, saying he no longer needed the money.

He told her and others that he was going to ‘act out’ in a big way and they would all hear about it, she said.

‘He wanted to cause trouble,’ she said. ‘He wanted to cause destruction.’

The shooter’s mother however claimed he was ‘not violent’. 

In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com she did not address claims she was a drug addict who saw the boy ditch her and go to live with his grandmother Celia Gonzalez.

Reyes was speaking from the bedside of Gonzalez, 66, as she recovers from being blasted in the face by her vile grandson before he went on a rampage and shot dead 19 children and two teachers.

He had bought two AR-15 assault rifles, bragged about them on social media and suggested he would commit an atrocity before the deadly attack.

But earlier today Ramos’ grandfather revealed the family had no idea he legally purchased the two weapons last week.

Rolando Reyes, 74, Gonzalez’s husband, also claimed his grandson had been a quiet teenager who spent most of his time alone in his room.