The first images from inside the Uvalde school shooting have emerged, revealing that police were heavily armed with rifles and a ballistic shield, yet still waited another 58 minutes while gunman Salvador Ramos continued his rampage - leaving 19 students and two teachers dead.
The photo, obtained by the Austin American Statesman and KVUE on Monday, casts an even more damning shadow on the Uvalde police department's response to the May 24 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School.
Despite entering the school just nine minutes after Ramos, officers waited nearly an hour to advance despite their superior firepower and training. Eventually, at 12:50 p.m. a Border Patrol BORTAC agent ignored police orders and burst into the classroom, shooting and killing Ramos.
"There were 19 officers in there," said Col. Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, at a media briefing days after the shooting (per the NY Post), "In fact, there were plenty of officers to do whatever needed to be done, with one exception — the incident commander inside believed they needed more equipment and more officers to do a tactical breach at that point."