A Uvalde mom stated she was handcuffed and practically arrested whereas imploring regulation enforcement to enter Robb Elementary College throughout Tuesday’s taking pictures, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Angeli Rose Gomez instructed the newspaper she and plenty of different mother and father have been ready exterior the Texas faculty, encouraging regulation enforcement to behave, as a gunman raged inside. As her calls grew extra pressing, she stated, U.S. Marshals handcuffed her and instructed her she was being arrested for intervening in an energetic investigation.
She persuaded native Uvalde law enforcement officials she knew to free her, earlier than leaping the varsity fence, working inside to seize her two youngsters and sprinting out with them.
“The police have been doing nothing,” Gomez stated. “They have been simply standing exterior the fence. They weren’t getting into there or working wherever.”
A spokesperson for the U.S. Marshals instructed WSJ its marshals by no means handcuffed anybody whereas securing the varsity’s perimeter and that they “maintained order and peace within the midst of the grief-stricken neighborhood that was gathering across the faculty.”
The U.S. Marshals workplace didn’t instantly return Avisionews’s request for remark.
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Gomez stated she additionally noticed a father get pepper sprayed and one other get tackled to the bottom by police on the frantic scene.
As soon as regulation enforcement had shot and killed the gunman, Gomez described seeing police use a taser on a father who was approaching a bus to choose up his little one.
“They didn’t try this to the shooter, however they did that to us. That’s the way it felt,” she stated.
The shooter, an 18-year-old male armed with an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle, killed 19 youngsters and two academics earlier than he was taken down by a responding Border Patrol officer.
The police response has drawn growing scrutiny as extra particulars and timelines of the assault emerge. A number of movies circulating on social media present mother and father pleading with police to do one thing as they waited exterior the constructing.
“There’s a f**king taking pictures on the faculty and these f**king cops are telling everyone to depart, dude, whereas everyone’s right here attempting to choose up their f**king youngsters,” a person will be heard saying in a livestream he filmed on the scene. “They’re simply all f**king parking exterior, man ― they should go in there… The cops ain’t doing s**t however standing exterior.”
One other video reveals a chaotic scene exterior the varsity, with some folks shouting at police whereas others are heard crying and screaming. Officers will be seen restraining a person on the pavement, whereas one other stands in entrance of them with a taser and a lady is screaming “he’s a dad or mum!”
Authorities confronted questions and backlash Thursday over how a lot time elapsed earlier than regulation enforcement burst into the classroom to place an finish to the rampage.
Texas Division of Public Security Director Steve McCraw stated Wednesday that after the shooter opened fireplace on a college safety officer, a full 40 minutes to an hour handed earlier than a U.S. Border Patrol group fatally shot the gunman. A special spokesperson stated they have been nonetheless working to verify the timeline.
