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I have seen numerous news sources claim that for over half an hour LEOs were on site of the shooting but doing nothing.

From NPR:

Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw told reporters that 40 minutes to an hour elapsed from when Ramos opened fire on the school security officer to when the tactical team shot him

Juan Carranza, 24, who saw the scene from outside his house, across the street from Robb Elementary School in the close-knit town of Uvalde. Carranza said the officers did not go in.

From CBS, emphasis mine:

A specialized tactical unit made of local, state and federal law enforcement officers were eventually able to enter

Is it true that LEOs were on site, but were not doing/not able to do anything to help?

Oddthinking
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Topcode
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    @GOATNine perhaps I should have included the questioning of the claim, but many people have been saying that there were evacuations, that the police were specifically getting their children, and that parents were needing to be held back from having a “fine I’ll do it myself” moment. All that is doing something – Topcode May 26 '22 at 15:58
  • Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to disparage LEOs in any way. I'm just suggesting a refocus of the question onto why as opposed to evidentiary proof one way or the other. The coverage I have seen has LEO on site during the entire 30m-1h block of time, only entering the school toward the end. The why is much more important here than what they did/didn't do. – GOATNine May 26 '22 at 16:03
  • Source with more evidence: https://reason.com/2022/05/26/witnesses-video-suggest-stunning-inaction-from-uvalde-cops-during-school-shooting/ – Reinstate Monica May 26 '22 at 16:20
  • I have seen several claims that the cops were outside while the shooter was on the inside on his rampage. https://twitter.com/SashoTodorov1/status/1529679213153996800 – Joe W May 26 '22 at 16:53
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    @GOATNine I’ve edited it to hopefully take your suggestion into account. To anyone else, feel free to revert or edit it if you feel the original or something else is better – Topcode May 26 '22 at 17:31
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    I'm not sure I understand the edit. You seem to have turned it from a claim (potentially on-topic) into a straight question about motivation of the officers and have assumed the claim is true (off-topic). Could you clarify what the claim to be challenged is? – Jiminy Cricket. May 27 '22 at 01:11
  • @JiminyCricket. from previous comment of mine “To anyone else, feel free to revert or edit it if you feel the original or something else is better” – Topcode May 27 '22 at 01:38
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    Sure, but it's not my question, I'm just curating and pointing out the difficulty. It has to be said, @GOATNine is giving you advice that's clearly not helpful as it points you towards asking an off-topic question; "why". – Jiminy Cricket. May 27 '22 at 01:58
  • There are multiple news sources and multiple witness accounts all stating this, and even the - somewhat protean and inconsistent - LEO statements themselves don't dispute it, they just try to justify it. I'm not seeing a case for scientific skepticism here. – Shadur May 27 '22 at 07:23
  • @JiminyCricket. not why as in motivations, why as in policies and procedures that lead to what we observed. This is well within the allowed topics for this stack, and it's information that isn't as readily found on the internet. – GOATNine May 27 '22 at 12:02
  • But the claim is not about policies and procedures being in any particular form, to delve into that would be beside the point of the claim and therefore off-topic. @GOATNine – Jiminy Cricket. May 27 '22 at 12:37
  • @JiminyCricket. You should VTC then, as the question is either not a case for scientific skepticism, or is off topic. – GOATNine May 27 '22 at 12:50
  • It's been re-edited by Oddthinking some hours ago to be on-topic. @GOATNine – Jiminy Cricket. May 27 '22 at 13:07
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    @GOATNine Your first comment is incorrect. Police did not chase Ramos while he was in his vehicle. This is a fog of war situation, which is why the question was closed. We're only starting to learn of the competence (or lack thereof) of the police during this mass murder. – David Hammen May 28 '22 at 10:58
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    Data is coming in. I think this question is due for re-opening. – pinegulf Jun 29 '22 at 09:27

1 Answers1

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It's true that the officers were on site. At least 3 LEO's engaged with (but did not necessarily exchange gunfire with) the active shooter at the school. CNN's official timeline places them at the school and in contact (read: shot at by) approximately 4 minutes after the shooter entered the building through an unlocked door. The shooter was killed more than 30 minutes later by border patrol agents. During the intervening time, parents were prevented from entering the building by the LEOs (presumably for their own protection, though such speculation is off topic in lieu of actual policy or procedures of the LEA).

There is an additional rumor that LEOs rescued their own children, and left the others to die, but there has been no proof or disproof of that to date.

GOATNine
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