When Border Patrol agents and police arrived in the hallway of a Uvalde elementary school in Texas on May 24, they encountered an immediate disadvantage: a gunman and his victims were locked in adjacent ranks behind metal doors. The tactical groups, known as BORTAC, are well aware of the breach techniques used to raid homes hidden along the US-Mexico border, which they believe are occupied by traffickers and smugglers. In these scenarios, a lock with a dead bolt on the door of a residential home usually does not fit the heavy, cylindrical agents they can use to get inside. But the secure classroom doors at Robb Elementary School were different. They had a metal frame and opened outwards, making it impossible to open them by force with a ram, according to a current and former U.S. Customs and Border Protection official who was informed of the May 24 shooting. Much remains unclear about how the massacre unfolded, with conflicting reports as to why police waited more than an hour before entering the classroom to confront the gunman who shot dead 19 children and two teachers and injured many others. But the design of the classroom doors added significantly to the challenge facing the officers, according to experts and officials who were briefed on what happened. As teachers and students bled and children called 911 for help, agents and officers who said the doors were locked tried to locate the keys and tools to force their way in, officials said. Uvalde’s parents, survivor narrates horror and begs for gun control A generation of mass shootings in U.S. schools has caused a sharpening of American classrooms, starting with sturdy, locked doors designed to protect students from intruders. Experts say these doors must be kept closed at all times to provide maximum protection. At Robb Elementary, however, the doors were apparently not locked when 18-year-old Salvador Ramos entered. “A door that opens outwards is the worst case scenario when you try to break in,” Sgt said. Scott Banes of the Fort Worth Police Department, who spent 12 years on a special response team trained regularly for active snipers and other emergency calls. If children are actively killed or die, police officers must do everything they can to get into the classroom, Banes said, even if they do not have the ideal tools. “You can use stones to break windows,” he said. “You can use a sledgehammer on the walls of the pieces. “You push, you push, you push, until the threat is neutralized or isolated, so that it can not harm anyone else.” The attack on Robb Elementary continued for 77 minutes. State police are now investigating why it took authorities so long to enter the two adjoining classrooms. the Ministry of Justice is also conducting an ex-post review. Police reports of what happened have changed dramatically over the past two weeks, and news agencies are gathering details, citing documents related to the investigation and interviews with law enforcement officials. Timeline: How police responded to the Uvalde gunman Pete Arredondo, the police chief for the Uvalde school district, who is at the center of the public outcry over the late entry, said in an interview with the Texas Tribune published Thursday that the steel doors worked in the police’s favor. outside. Arredondo, whose lawyer’s office said he was not available for an interview Friday, told the Tribune he had left his radio behind to better handle his service weapon against the perpetrator. He also said that he tried “dozens of keys”, but none of them fit in the classroom doors. It took more than an hour for officers to locate the correct key and obtain the ballistic shield that provided protection to BORTAC agents as they passed the doorway. Without the shield, anyone who opened the doors to the outside would face a barrage of fire from the sniper rifle AR-15. Two police officers were already grazed by bullets after they tried to confront the shooter in the first few minutes of the attack. withdrew as Arredondo saw the incident as a confrontation with a suspect locked in a barricade, instead of an emergency clash with an active sniper, authorities said. In law enforcement, breach is a specialized skill that officers can spend years perfecting. Some agencies insist on manually violating, using relatively simple tools such as rams and bars. Other officers are trained in ballistic missiles, using specific shotgun ammunition designed to disintegrate when struck on a hard surface, making it potentially safer for anyone on the other side of the door. Many large city SWAT teams use explosive violation, a quick and effective way to beat most doors if the operators are well trained. Steel doors with steel frames opening out can be one of the toughest law enforcement violations, said Marcus “Sandy” Wall, a retired Houston SWAT team member, because police have to open the door. instead of hitting her. The difficulty can vary, depending on the material and whether the frame is attached to nails. But the risk increases dramatically when an active sniper fires from the other side of the door, as happened in Uvalde, Wall said. Pete Arredondo spent years preparing for a school shooting. Then it happened. Curtis S. Lavarello, executive director of the School Safety Advocacy Council, said safe doors have been added to classrooms across the country and, when locked, provide excellent protection if a gunman arrives on campus. However, he insisted, the authorities must have a way to open them quickly – and they must be trained to do so during security drills. It is not clear if the school police or the local police in Uvalde did this. “It is shocking for someone with more than 25 years of law enforcement not to enter this room for more than an hour,” Lavarello said. “Opening the door to the outside is not a valid excuse for not penetrating this classroom,” he said. “To say ‘we can’t get a key’ is nonsense.” Kenneth S. Trump, a school security adviser who helps schools and police prepare for mass shootings, said there are key steps authorities can take to avoid the confusion that seems to have hampered Uvalde’s response. cops out in the hallway. Uvalde schools have a security plan. The shooting showed its limits. Police stations should have master keys for all school classrooms and layouts of each building readily available, either in patrols or digitally on officers’ devices. “That way, through design and preparation, you know what the types of doors in the building are, so you can plan how you will break into each room,” Trump said. “It means you probably need a master key, so you would not expect Mr. Jing-a-ling to come with 50 keys and then guess.” “You can not create a parking plan in the middle of an emergency,” Trump said. “You have to make this grunt earlier and you need to pay attention to detail.” BORTAC members who first arrived at Robb were not part of a single group, according to a CBP official with direct knowledge of what happened, who spoke on condition of anonymity to share preliminary details of the investigation. One was a field supervisor, the CBP official said. Many were on patrol routine that day. From Sandy Hook to Uvalde, here’s what happens to surviving children BORTAC members usually do not carry rams and ballistic shields in their vehicles unless they are preparing for a specific tactical operation against a target such as a hideout, the official said. In other regular operations, BORTAC teams may deploy snipers to track targets through windows. But Robb’s classroom windows were painted or covered with blinds, the official said, and with the lights off it was impossible for police officers and agents outside to see where the perpetrator was. An American Marshal brought the shield to the tactical group, or “stack”, which was preparing to enter the classroom and confront the sniper. As soon as the police on the scene managed to unlock the doors, BORTAC agents led a small group to the class. The gunman opened fire, police said, and agents killed him. What they encountered next was horrible. Agents entering the classroom saw “children stacked against a wall,” the CBP official said. The children seemed to be huddled close to each other for protection and fell together as the shooter attacked them with the powerful rifle. One of the agents pulled a child who was still alive from the pile of small bodies, the official said. Others transported injured and bleeding children to ambulances. Roy Guerrero testified in Parliament on June 8 about armed violence. Guerrero is a pediatrician in Ovalde, Texas (Video: The Washington Post) Roy Guerrero, a pediatrician in Uvalde who testified before lawmakers in Washington this week, described the damage he suffered when the victims were taken to hospital. “Two children, whose bodies had been pulverized by the bullets thrown at them, were beheaded, whose flesh was torn, that the only indication of their identity was the blood-stained cartoon clothes that were still stuck on them.” , he said. After other officers and emergency personnel stormed the scene, dozens of Border Patrol agents gathered under the shade of a tree between the school and the street, the CBP official said. Some agents were in shock, trembling and crying. Border Patrol agents returned as a team to their station in Uvalde, the official said. Many were forced to take off their uniforms and throw them away because they were drenched in blood.
