Multiple reports including eyewitness accounts from parents are calling into question the timeline involving Tuesday's elementary school shooting in Texas.
Officers waiting for a tactical unit to arrive didn't enter the building for up to 60 minutes after the gunman entered the school.
The Daily Caller has more on the questions being raised:
There are inconsistencies between different accounts of the timelines of the day, including whether shots were fired when an officer attempted to stop the gunman from entering the school, and questions remain about why law enforcement did not engage him sooner, according to various media reports. One witness told the Associated Press that onlookers had urged police officers to charge the school during the shooting, but to no avail.
Salvador Ramos, the 18-year-old gunman, reportedly entered the building's back entrance without being engaged by the police officer on the scene, Republican Texas Rep. Tony Gonzalez said on “The Lead” with Jake Tapper Wednesday. The officer on the scene reportedly cornered the gunman in one classroom, where a brief firefight ensued through the room's door.
The officer was reportedly injured in the firefight, according to Gonzalez, but then the shooter appeared to barricade himself inside the classroom, where a “30-minute lull” followed before he began shooting, according to Gonzalez. The shooter was in the classroom for about an hour total, and the border patrol agent eventually breached the classroom and neutralized the shooter.
A law enforcement official familiar with the matter, but who isn't authorized to comment on the investigation, told the AP that police had difficulties breaching the classroom door to neutralize the gunman and had to ask school staff to open it with a key.
Javier Cazares told the Associated Press that he arrived on the scene while the shooting was ongoing. Distraught, he raised the idea of entering the building with other bystanders, reportedly saying, “Let's just rush in because the cops aren't doing anything like they are supposed to.”
“They were unprepared,” Cazares added.
His daughter, Jacklyn, was killed in the attack.
A Texas Department of Public Safety spokesperson told the AP in the same article that police had engaged the gunman both outside and inside the school.
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I’d say there are questions that need answered.
Fact: Police did not do their job! Questions; Was the school on lock down, if not, why not? If yes, how or why did this person just happen to pick the door that was unlocked? Who sold him two assault rifles along with all that ammunition without reporting his name to the police? This sale is so out of the “norm” that any common thinking person should have put his finger to his head and said, “hmmm”. Where did he get the funds to make this purchase? Why was this compromised student not reported to the police by his teachers? Why wasn’t this compromised person not reported to the police by his parents and grandparents. He was not “normal”. So-o-o many danger signs were not acted on by capable people that this is what must be studied by experts. I was and am “pro” police and always will be but this department was not properly trained and you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure that out. To “mill” about and do nothing while children are in danger is unconscionable and just can’t happen again!