A distraught dad of a child killed in the Texas school shooting asked why “40 lawmen armed to the teeth” waited outside during the massacre until it was “far too late”.
Salvador Ramos, 18, slaughtered 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde with the massacre lasting about 90 minutes before he was eventually shot dead by police.
Jacinto Cazares, whose 10-year-old daughter Jacklyn was killed, wants to know why police were waiting outside instead of going in to save the children.
The first call to emergency services was made at 11.30am on Tuesday morning from someone saying that a man had crashed near the school and walked away with a long rifle.
Ramos was spotted and "engaged by law enforcement" but walked into the school anyway, and it was another 90 minutes before he was eventually killed.
Initial reports suggested police held their fire because Ramos appeared to be wearing protective body armour, but it has since emerged this was not the case.
“There was at least 40 lawmen armed to the teeth but didn’t do a darn thing [until] it was far too late,” Mr Cazares told ABC News.
"The situation could've been over quick if they had better tactical training, and we as a community witnessed it first hand."
He said he was not against guns but said they should only be given out after checks and with age limits.
“I'm a gun owner and I do not blame the weapons used in this tragedy,” he said.
“I'm angry how easy it is to get one and young you can be to purchase one.”
Similarly, a witness outside the school during the shooting said that women were shouting at officers outside: “Go in there, go in there,” reported the New York Post.
Juan Carranza, 24, saw Ramos crash his car and then grab an AR-15 style semi-automatic rifle before walking away.
Mr Carranza claimed that Ramos fired at and missed two people outside a nearby funeral home.
A Texas Department of Public Safety spokesperson said that Ramos shot at a school district security officer and then inside the building he fired at two arriving Uvalde police officers.
There were local and state police as well as 80 Border Patrol officers then on the scene and yet some locals are now saying they took too long to act.
A Customs and Border Protection said that it was four of the 80 Border Patrol officers that went in and killed Ramos.
Mr Carranza, though, said: “There were more of them, there was just one of him.”
It is not yet known why the school district security officer didn’t fire back at Ramos.
The revelations about how long it took for police to take him down have been met with widespread anger on social media, with critics slamming officers as "pathetic" and "too scared to engage" with the gunman.
