911 call reveals uncle pleaded to talk shooter out of shooting

DALLAS (AP) — The uncle of the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting suspect who killed 19 students and two teachers pleaded with police to let him try to reason with his nephew, according to a 911 call included in a massive trove of audio and video recordings released Saturday by city officials.

Documents related to the May 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School were released by Uvalde officials after a lengthy legal battle. The Associated Press and other news organizations sued after officials initially refused to publicly release the information.

“Maybe he could listen to me because he listens to me, everything I tell him, he listens to me,” the man, who identified himself as Armando Ramos, said in a 911 call. “Maybe he could back off or do something to turn himself in,” Ramos said, his voice breaking.

FILE – In this photo from surveillance footage provided by Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District via Austin American-Statesman, authorities respond to a shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, 2022. (Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District/Austin American-Statesman via AP, File)(AP)

The caller told dispatch that the shooter, identified as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, had been home with him the previous night. He said his nephew had stayed in the bedroom with him all night and told him he was upset because his grandmother was “harassing” him.

“Oh my God, please, please don’t do anything stupid,” the man says on the phone. “I think he’s shooting kids.”

The call came in at about 1 p.m. on May 24, 2022, about 10 minutes after the shooting ended. Salvador Ramos was fatally shot by authorities at 12:50 p.m. He entered the school at 11:33 a.m., officials said.

The delayed law enforcement response — nearly 400 officers waited more than 70 minutes before confronting the shooter in a classroom full of dead and wounded children and teachers — was widely condemned as a colossal failure. The Uvalde massacre was one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history.

Just before arriving at the school, Salvador Ramos shot and wounded his grandmother in her home. He then took a pickup truck from the house and drove to the school.

A desperate woman called 911 at 11:29 a.m., just before the shooting began, to tell dispatch that a pickup truck had gone into a ditch and its driver had run onto school grounds.

“Oh my God, they have guns,” she said, telling the dispatcher that shots had been fired.

“Oh my God, I think there were kids in the gym,” she said. “Please hurry up!”

At 1:19 p.m., another relative of Salvador Ramos called 911, fearing he might also report her.

“Can you bring someone to my house?” Kesley Ramos asked the dispatcher. “The active shooter, he’s my cousin and I don’t want him coming to my house.”

Multiple federal and state investigations into the slow law enforcement response have exposed cascading problems in training, communication, leadership and technology and raised questions about whether officers put their lives before those of children and teachers in the South Texas city of about 15,000, located 80 miles (130 kilometers) west of San Antonio. Victims’ families have long demanded accountability for the slow police response.

Two of the responding officers now face criminal charges: former Uvalde School Police Chief Pete Arredondo and former school resource officer Adrian Gonzales have pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of child abandonment and child endangerment. A Texas state trooper in Uvalde who had been suspended was reinstated earlier this month.

Some families have called for more officers to be charged and have filed federal and state lawsuits against law enforcement, social media, online gaming companies and the gun manufacturer that made the rifle the attacker used.

The police response included nearly 150 U.S. Border Patrol agents and 91 state police officers, as well as school and city police. While dozens of officers stood in the hallway trying to figure out what to do, students in the classroom called 911 on cellphones, pleading for help, and desperate parents who had gathered outside the building begged officers to come in. A tactical team eventually entered the classroom and killed the shooter.

Previously released school security footage shows police officers, some armed with rifles and bulletproof shields, waiting in the hallway.

However, a city-commissioned report defended the actions of local police, saying the officers showed “excessive force” and “clear-headedness” when faced with the gunman’s fire and refrained from opening fire in the darkened classroom.