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Multiple police officers who responded to the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, were struck with gunfire by a suspect who “just began shooting anyone that was in his way,” a law enforcement officer revealed Wednesday.
Texas Department of Public Safety Lt. Chris Olivarez, speaking on NBC’s “Today” show, said the events that led to the deaths of 19 students and two teachers began when Salvador Ramos shot his grandmother and then crashed a vehicle while fleeing that scene. Local police then got calls about an individual armed with a weapon making his way into the school, according to Olivarez.
He said when law enforcement “tried to make entry into the building, they were met with gunfire by the suspect, by the shooter.
Law enforcement work the scene after a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday, May 25.
(Jordan Vonderhaar/Getty Images)
“Some of those officers were shot,” Olivarez continued. “So at that point they began breaking windows around the school trying to evacuate children, teachers, anybody they could, trying to get them out of that building.”
UVALDE, TEXAS SCHOOL SHOOTING: LIVE UPDATES
Olivarez said Ramos then was “able to make entry into a classroom, barricaded himself inside that classroom and again just began shooting numerous children and teachers that were in that classroom, having no regard for human life, just a complete, evil person by not having any regard for children.
Equipment from the San Antonio Fire Department is parked outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday, May 24.
(William Luther/The San Antonio Express-News via AP)
“Anyone inside that classroom, [he] just began shooting anyone that was in his way,” he added.
“At that point we had a tactical law enforcement team arrive made up of multiple federal officers, local officers as well as state troopers that were able to make forceable entry into that classroom,” Olivarez also said. “They were met with gunfire as well, but they were able to shoot and kill that suspect.”
A police vehicle is seen parked near of a truck believed to belong to the suspect of a shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday, May 24.
(Reuters/Marco Bello)
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The motive surrounding the Robb Elementary School shooting remains unknown.
“We want to offer our condolences to the families on behalf the Texas Department of Public Safety as we continue to mourn with the victims, with the families, with the entire community here in Uvalde,” Olivarez told NBC.
