Texas school to be demolished after shock twist in mass shooting

Robb Elementary will be razed to the ground after Uvalde police revealed the heartbreaking decision that could have stopped mass shooter Salvador Ramos.

The Texas school where 19 children and two teachers were killed will be demolished after Uvalde authorities admitted a series of fatal errors that could have prevented the mass shooting.

In the latest devastating decision to be revealed, the husband of a slain teacher - himself an armed police officer - was detained on the scene after he tried to run into the school to rescue his wife.

Eva Mireles, 44, called her husband Ruben Ruiz, who is an officer with the school police department, saying she had been shot in room 112, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw told a special state Senate hearing.

Eva Mireles and husband Ruben Ruiz, a Uvalde police officer who was detained and disarmed trying to save his wife. Picture: Supplied

One of the children had also called 911 pleading to “send help for my teacher, she is shot but still alive”.

Mr Ruiz rushed to the school, driven by a sergeant, and desperately tried to save his wife but was instead stopped, detained and disarmed by officers on the scene, according to testimony before the hearing.

“He tried to move forward into the hallway ... He was detained, and they took his gun away from him and escorted him off the scene,” Mr McCraw said.

Ms Mireles died in room 112 alongside her fellow teacher, Irma Garcia. Ms Garcia’s husband, Joe Garcia, died two days later of a heart attack.

Salvador Ramos, who killed at least 19 young children and two teachers at the elementary school. Picture: Supplied

Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin told a council meeting that the school would be demolished, while accusing Mr McCraw of deflecting blame away from state police.

“You can never ask a child to go back or teacher to go back in that school ever,” Mr McLaughlin said.

“Colonel McCraw has an agenda and it’s not to present a full report on what happened and to give factual answers to the families of this community,” he added.

It came after screen shots from surveillance footage, which has not been released, showed officers armed, wearing body armour and with shields in direct contradictions of previous claims that they were waiting for tactical equipment before breaching the classroom.

A weathered stuffed animal is seen at a memorial in front of Robb Elementary School. Picture: AFP

It was also revealed that police never attempted to unlock a door previously claimed to be locked and barricaded shut in what has been described as an “abject failure”.

A top law enforcement official told the hearing into the tragedy that police wasted vital time looking for a classroom key that was “never needed”.

Nineteen young children and two teachers were killed when a teenage gunman went on a rampage at Robb Elementary on May 24 in America’s worst school shooting in a decade.

A girl lays flowers at a makeshift memorial at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Picture: AFP

Crosses sit outside the Robb Elementary School in remembrance of those killed in Uvalde, Texas. Picture: AFP

Local police have been under intense scrutiny since it emerged that more than a dozen officers waited outside a classroom door and did nothing as children lay dead or dying inside.

Mr McGraw told state senators probing the handling of the tragedy that police had enough officers to stop the shooter three minutes after he entered the school.

But instead they waited over an hour to confront the 18-year-old gunman as he carried out his attack.

Mr McCraw said on-scene commander Pete Arredondo — who has said in interviews since the tragedy he did not believe he was in charge of the overall police response — had “decided to place the lives of officers before the lives of children”.

“The officers had weapons, the children had none. The officers had body armour, the children had none. The officers had training, the subject had none,” he testified.

Uvalde County Sheriff Ruben Nolasco hugs Texas Governor Greg Abbott as they attend a vigil for the victims. Picture: AFP

A woman cries as she attends the vigil for the victims of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Picture: AFP

Mr Arredondo had claimed that the classroom door was locked, delaying their move on the shooter, but Mr McCraw told the inquiry that was not believed to be the case.

“He waited for a key that was never needed,” said the official, adding Mr Arredondo had made “terrible decisions.”

He said the response ran counter to lessons learned since the Columbine high school shooting that left 13 people dead in 1999.

“There’s compelling evidence that the law enforcement response to the attack at Robb Elementary was an abject failure and antithetical to everything we’ve learned over the last two decades since the Columbine massacre,” said Mr McCraw.

“Obviously, not enough training was done in this situation, plain and simple,” he added

Additional reporting by AFP.

Originally published as Texas school to be demolished after shock twist in mass shooting