New audio of a phone call made during the Uvalde massacre, which resulted in the deaths of 19 children and two teachers, shows inaction on the part of Texas police during the school assault, amid controversy over alleged failures in police response.
From this audio it is clear that the police chief knew that there were between eight and nine children alive inside Robb Elementary School and that they needed to be rescued as soon as possible, according to information accessed by CNN television network, which has indicated that, however, the agents were not able to organize the rescue properly.
Officer Mariano Pargas called his colleagues at the Uvalde Police Department to get more details about what was happening on May 24 after a ten-year-old girl contacted the officers and claimed to be in a classroom «full of victims».
However, a series of communication and leadership failures ensued, leading to a chaotic response that took officers 77 minutes to restrain the attacker who stormed the school armed. Some police officers have claimed that they were unaware of the calls made to 911, while others have maintained that they were unable to hear the radio transmissions.
Now, calls made to Pagas’ phone show that one of the Corps’ top brass was aware of the call made to 911 from inside the classroom and that it gave accurate data on the location of the children who were left alive.
The conversation, recorded as part of routine police procedure, shows how Pargas makes a call at 12:16 (local time), about six minutes after the student called the police, and is updated on the situation.
However, analysis of the data collected suggests that Pargas went to a Border Guard agent to inform him that there were victims and, at about 12:18, forgets to name the children who are still alive when speaking to a Texas Ranger.
He then walks toward the school entrance, away from the agents who are standing next to one of the affected classrooms and who would not enter the classroom for another 30 minutes.
The police finally entered the classrooms and shot the assailant at 12:50 p.m., some 80 minutes after the school massacre began.
