tv New Day With John Berman and Brianna Keilar CNN May 26, 2022 4:00am-5:00am PDT
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good morning to our viewers here in the united states and all around the world, it is thursday, may 26th. i'm john berman live in uvalde, texas. brianna keilar is in washington this morning. 19 children and two teachers were killed behind me at the robb elementary school. i want to show you what's happened here overnight. you can see this new memorial has sprouted up, flowers all around the sign, balloons and now just in the last few hours these crosses, one for every one of the victims here. ♪ >> this was a vigil overnight where the community came together. so many pain. so many tears. this is a small town, it has a small town feel, just over
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15,000 people and so many of the people we talked to have connections to the victims. tess maria mata was 10 years old, she was saving every dollar hoping to go to disney world. nevaeh bravo also 10 has been remembered as a young girl who put a smile on everyone's face. these are the stories that you will hear this morning. a fourth grade teacher who sacrificed herself protecting the children, a grieving father who found out his daughter died trying to save her classmates. we have learned that by tonight all of the victims their bodies will be released to funeral homes for arrangements. >> and some new reporting this morning about the excruciating moments outside of the school during the shooting. one parent telling the "washington post," quote, there were five or six of us fathers hearing the gunshots and police officers were telling us to move back. we didn't care about us, we wanted to storm the building. we were saying let's go because
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that is how worried we were and we wanted to get our babies out. we also have some new details about how this mass shooting unfolded. the 18-year-old gunman was on school grounds for up to an hour before law enforcement shot and killed him. moments before his deadly attack he apparently sent a series of chilling text messages, private messages, to a girl in germany that he met online. an officer confronting the shooter outside of the school, but he still managed to get inside the building dropping a bag full of ammunition outside before he entered. president biden is expected to travel to uvalde here in the coming days to meet with victims' families. >> all right. joining me now cnn's adrienne broaddus and shimon prokupecz part of the cnn team on the ground here trying to tell this tragic story. we are getting new details about the status of the bodies, the victims here. >> yeah, and this is part of the next step, john, for these families. at least nine of the deceased have been -- those bodies have
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been released to the funeral home. this is where families can now come in and start preparing the funeral arrangements for their children. there are two funeral homes here in town, on their website they have started to post the names of the deceased children. what will follow next will be their obituaries. think about it, many of these kids were 9, 10, their parents, shimon, as you know, likely not planning, didn't think about writing an obituary. parents are supposed to outlive their children so they are preparing to do that now and the bodies that haven't been released, john, will be released later today. >> and we are learning so much more about the victims themselves. as you say, i mean, these families they were planning summer vacations. they never thought they would be planning funerals right now. >> no, today was supposed to be the last day of school. it was supposed to be the start of the summer break and many of these students and their
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families were looking forward to this summer because, think of about t for the last two years things haven't been normal, we were in the middle of a pandemic so they were planning to see their friends at camp and some children were just looking forward to advancing to the next grade. i'm sure you remember when you were a third grader, preparing to go to fourth grade, because your friends had been in fourth grade and they told you so much about that teacher and these teachers, two of them, who lost their lives at this school behind us, likely had a profound impact on the students whose lives they touched. >> they had a profound impact on generations of students here and that community is making that clear this morning. shimon, a more complete story in this investigation, more complete, but still some questions to be asked. >> there are. i mean, we really don't have a good accounting of why -- a good account of why it took police so long to storm this classroom.
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>> up to an hour. >> he was in there up to an hour. this is the latest information that we've received yesterday from dps at the governor's press conference, that it may have taken -- he was in there for up to an hour. we also learned that the border patrol, the officers from those teams came in. they were the ones that ultimately stormed the room, part of this tactical team. so it took them to get here, it took some time to put this team together, but we still don't know why. why didn't the officers as they started getting to the scene assemble and just go towards the gunfire? we are now getting reports of parents, parents who were here outside the school, rushing here to find out what was going on and they can hear the gunshots and frustrated wanting to go inside. i was just talking to someone about that and they said that one of the city officials here that it was complete chaos here. it just seemed like the police did not have good control over this situation and that it took some time, quite some time for
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police to get control of the situation. but can you imagine your kids are inside this school and you're coming here and you're hearing gunfire and the police are just standing around. i mean, yes, there was stuff going on inside but for what parents are seeing, they're seeing officers standing around and they're saying, well, how are you out here when there's gunfire inside? who is dealing with this? so we need more information basically from the police on why it took so long. there could be a good reason for it and i want to give them, you know, some benefit, but i still think we do not have enough answers for these parents, for these victims and we're going to start seeing these stories now. this is a tight community, everyone knows each other, this is a law enforcement community, people here who live in this community that are part of law enforcement, we know off-duty officers were rushing here whose kids were inside this school. so we need a better accounting. we don't have a firm timeline even yet from the police on that. so there's still a lot that i
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think we need to learn on the tactics here and why the officers did what they did because officers -- you know, we've covered so many of these and it's always you go towards the gunfire, you go towards -- you assemble a team, you get together quickly and you go in to try and neutralize the threat. >> shimon prokupecz, adrienne broaddus, thank you both so much for the work you're doing here. appreciate it. in a moment we are going to speak with lieutenant kristol varies he does have new details. hopefully we will get some answers to those questions that shimon was just talking about. this morning several victims of this shooting are still being treated for their wounds in hospitals around the area. joining us now is the pedestrian trick trauma medical director at the hospital in san antonio. her hospital is caring for four of the victims of the massacre. according to officials it
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includes the 66-year-old grandmother of the shooter. doctor, i want to start with the status of the children you are still caring for. how are they doing this morning? >> the children that we received are all doing well. they are critical but stable and will be continuing to receive care over the next days to weeks. >> you say critical but stable. can you tell me more about what that means? s>> that means that the patient is receiving ongoing continuous care. it means that the patient sustained serious injuries where multiple physicians, nurses and other care providers have to monitor them in an interval that's more frequent than a
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minor injury. >> and, again, at this point it's three children that you are still treating this morning? >> we are. we have -- we initially received three patients and we're hoping that some of them can get released in the next few days. >> that would be wonderful. i know i'm sure that those children would love to get home. i know you can't give us specifics about the nature of the injuries or wounds or issues they were dealing with, but broadly speaking, what were some of the things that you were treating? >> broadly speaking, we were -- we were treating destructive wounds and what that means is that there were large areas of tissue missing from the body and they required emergency surgery
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because there was significant blood loss. >> doctor, i know this is your job but i also know that not every day is the same and that this had to be particularly difficult for you and all of your colleagues. can you talk about that? s>> yeah, you know, i think it was a difficult day for all of america. from our standpoint we had the experience of sutherland springs at our level 1 pediatric trauma center and in that experience we learned and we prepared for this mass casualty event and gathered teams of surgeons,
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anesthesiologists, pediatricians very quickly and we waited. and also from the last experience we realized that when we're dealing with high velocity firearm injuries we may not get a whole lot of patients. i think that's what has hit us the most, not of the patients that we did receive and we are honored to treat them, but the patients that we did not re receive. i think that that is the most challenging aspect of our job right now. >> i was at sutherland springs and what a commentary, i think, at this point that you have experience. it says something that you and your teammates are experienced in dealing with mass shooter events and, as you said, in a
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way it is unusual to receive injuries that you can treat. i do also know that there were some -- some who arrived deceased already at the hospital which makes it even harder. as i said, officials have told us that one of the patients being treated at your facility is the grandmother, the 66-year-old woman who was shot by the killer here. anything you can tell us about her condition this morning? >> she's critical but stable as well. >> critical but stable as well. do you anticipate she would be able to be released in the coming days? s>> i don't think we can talk about that. the hospital will release -- >> understood. >> what's that? >> understood. i get it. doctor, how are you doing this morning? >> you know, i'm doing great.
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i have a whole day of surgeries planned for our team, looking forward to seeing our patients this morning on rounds and, you know, like everybody probably a little shooken up, but my job is to be focused -- our job as the trauma center is to be focused on treating the patients that we did receive and that's -- that's what we're going to do today. >> what you do every day. dr. liao, you are a wonderful physician, you are also a decent human being and we appreciate the work that you're doing. we appreciate your humanity and just know that we all feel like you do this morning. so thank you. >> thank you so much.
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in moments we will speak with one of the officials to get the latest on the investigation, including some of the unanswered questions. plus, we do have new details on the chilling messages sent by the gunman before he barricaded himself into this elementary school killing 21 people, 19 children, 2 teachers who were trying to save their lives. this is cnn's special live coverage from uvalde, texas. stay with us. at bath fitter, every quality bath starts with quality people. our consultants help you choose from hundreds of bath options so we fit your s style. our installers complplete your work in as little as a day so we fit your schedule. our manufacturing team custom crafts s your bath so we fit your statandards, and it's guaranteed for life. when you can trust the people who create your new bath, it just fits. bath fitter. visit bathfitter.com to book your free consultation.
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here with a look now at how gun culture in the u.s. compares to the rest of the world is cnn correspondent tom foreman. what did you find, tom? >> no one in the world owns guns the way that americans own guns. look at the numbers up here. there are 120 guns for every 100 americans, that means every single person you see today imagine that person with a gun and every fifth one give them a couple of guns. that's how many guns are in america. next time you are stuck in a traffic jam think to yourself more guns in this country than cars. that's one way of looking at it. this is very high compared to the world. at that rate of 120.5 per 100 people, the next two closest once are the falkland islands down by argentina with 62 per 100 and look at this yemen over by saudi arabia and oman they've been locked in armed conflict for seven years now, they have far less than half as many guns as people have in the united
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states. compared to the rest of the world here is another way of looking at it, there are 330 million people in the united states, 393 million guns in the united states. the rest of the world, 7.4 billion people, look at that, 7.4 billion compared to 330 million they have 464 million guns, more, yeah, but by per capita not even close. total number of civilian guns in the world number half in the united states, just over half for the rest of the world. one other way of looking at this, though, is also to note that it's not evenly distributed of course. in the united states this is how it breaks down, 44% of u.s. households have a gun in the house somewhere. 44%. again, pushing up toward half. and 32% of u.s. adults personally own an gun. nobody in the modern world has owned guns at this rate as a
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country and the numbers people going up. >> one way to think of it is if you look at five people you might think of giving ten guns to one person and no guns to a couple of people. it's extraordinary. >> it's remarkable how this breaks down. when you think of it that way, when you think of all the people you see, all the cars you see and just imagine a gun every time you see one today you're still not keeping up with how many guns are out there. >> thanks for putting that into context. berman? cnn has obtained chilling text messages sent by the texas gunman to a girl in germany just minutes before the killing here at the robb elementary school. cnn's drew griffin joining us now with the details. drew, what have you learned? >> this conversation between these two people started a few weeks ago online but the last messages coming in realtime as this horrific crime began to unfold. >> reporter: this is the text
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conversation captured just moments before the 18-year-old shooter would attempt to kill his grandmother, then, in his words, shoot up an elementary school. you know what i'm going to do right now, he writes, tell me is the response. i can't, since my grandpa hasn't left. i'm waiting for this dude to leave. shortly after 11:00 a.m. texas time the suspect then complains about his grandmother and his phone bill. i'm waiting for this bitch. i'm going to do something to her right now. she's on with at&t about my phone. it's annoying. five minutes pass, then, i just shot my grandma in her head. ima go shoot up an elementary school right now. that last message sent at 6:21 p.m. german time which would have been 11:21 a.m. in uvalde, texas. 11 minutes later police received their first call of a shooting at robb elementary school. the person on the receiving end of the text, a 15-year-old girl
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in germany. she had never met him in person. they connected through a live streaming app called ubo, then face timed, texted and he sent her videos of himself. she says the shooter told her he bought some ammo monday but she told cnn she had no idea what he was planning. she's not the only person she was communicating with. the shooter's instagram account showed a photo of two ar-style weapons and tagged another young woman who he messaged the morning of the shooting saying, i'm about to -- but didn't finish his sentence and then i have a little secret. >> the girl who spoke to us with her mother's consent said the previous conversations weren't really alarming to her but for one she told us when the shooter allegedly said he liked to throw dead cats at people's houses, alarming, but not enough for her to send any kind of warning. john? >> drew, i've got to say, i know, again, the idea that he was communicating, there were words out there, but people have
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to understand what they mean and that's just not always the case. drew griffin, thank you so much for that report. in just moments we will speak with one of the officials on the latest in this investigation as parents do say they were kept from going inside the school to try to save their children. finding the perfect designer isn't easy. but, at upwork, we found her. she's in austin n between a dog named klaus and her favorite shade of g green. it's actually salem clover. and you can find herer right now on upwork.com when the world is your workforce, finding the perfect project manager, designer, developer, or whomever you may need... tends to fall right into place. find top-rated talent who can start today on upwork.com ever get a sign the universe is trying to tell you something? the clues are all around us! not that one. that's the one. at university of phoenix, you could earn your master's deee in less than a yea for under $11k.
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i'm john berman in uvalde, texas, at the robb elementary school. 21 families here are broken and struggling to make sense of the loss of their loved ones. this morning we do want to remember them. uziyah garcia's uncle described him as a great kid, full of life who loved everything on wheels and video games.
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his grandfather said he was the sweetest little boy he had ever known. he had two sisters. he was 10 years old. tess marie mata loved tiktok dances, ariana, grande and the houston astros. her sister says she was saving money so the whole family could go to disney world. she was ten years old. the father of amerie jo garza says his daughter was trying to do everything she could to save her classmates. he says his little love is now flying high with the angels above. eva mireles was a fourth grade teacher at robb elementary and she had been an educator for 17 years, she enjoyed running, hiking, biking and spending time with her family. irma garcia the second teacher killed in the shooting, she was an educator for 23 years and she is remembered as sweet, kind, and loving. loved ones say she sacrificed herself protecting the kids in her classroom. she was a hero.
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she was loved by many and will truly be missed. javier lopez's mother says she will never forget his smile which could cheer anyone up. he was excited to start middle school which was only months away. javier's mom was there to cheer him on adds he received his honor roll certificate. he was 10 years old. lexi rubio, 10, was a star student at robb elementary and her parents were also at the school to celebrate her making an all a honor role and getting a good citizen award hours before she was killed. >> just wanted to go to australia. >> she wanted to go to australia. >> she wanted to go to law school at st. mary's because that's where i go. >> all i can hope is she's not a number. hopefully something gets resolved, that's all we ask. hopefully something gets resolved. >> i know this is very difficult, but what would you like to get resolved? what would you like to see
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the sun rising over the robb elementary school, you can see the crosses that were placed here at this memorial overnight. this morning house speaker nancy pelosi says that bipartisan gun control talks are now under way. senate republicans discussed various gun policies wednesday, but failed to settle on a consensus. cnn's lauren fox is live on capitol hill with the latest on this. there are talks, lauren. how are they going?
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>> reporter: well, it was a significant departure yesterday when senator chuck schumer the majority leader made it clear that he is going to give democrats some time to try to reach across the aisle, to try to negotiate with their republican colleagues on gun legislation. senator chris murphy, a democrat from connecticut who is leading this process, told me yesterday he already had had several conversations with the republicans trying to see if there was anything that they could do, whether that was something on background checks or red flag laws, mental health legislation, anything that they could do to try to move the needle forward. he told me, quote, he is a sucker for trying to find some kind of bipartisan bill, but, like you said, republicans having a private conversation during their conference lunch yesterday afternoon, but not coming up with any consensus of what their party might be willing to support. at the end of the daytime can be the enemy here with these kinds of negotiations and we've seen
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time and time again senator murphy and others try to move the ball forward. also significant yesterday, senator kyrsten sinema, someone who has a strong track record of working across the aisle with her republican colleagues said she wants to lead some of these conversations as well. we saw her talking on the floor with republicans like senator john thune, the republican whip as well as marco rubio of florida, someone who wanted to push forward a school safety bill yesterday. so a lot of impromptu conversations happening, but lawmakers going on recess after today, so the question becomes what can they accomplish next week over the phone, will they return to washington with a plan forward? that is a big question that still remains to be seen, john. >> if there's a will, they can accomplish a lot. we'll see. it's good that the discussions are happening, we will see where it goes from here. lauren fox, thank you so much.
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so while lawmakers remain divided on capitol hill the fact remains that an overwhelming majority of americans support at least some gun control measures. so why hasn't congress acted? john avalon with our reality check. >> 19 children murdered in their classroom. look at their faces, say their names and know that we do not have to accept this as normal in america. thoughts and prayers are not enough. and it's not politicizing a tragedy to ask what we can do to make this heartbreak happen less. that's the least we can do in a self-governing society, right? because this is not inevitable. it's a choice. you know that onion headline they reprint after every major mass shooting, no way to present this says only nation where this regularly happening. that's the dark truth. after all, we live in a country where guns outnumber people. america has more guns per person than yemen which is almost eight years into a civil war, and all
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those guns aren't keeping us safe. we are the world leader in mass shootings. in fact, guns account for 79% of all homicides in america in 2020. compare that to just 4% in the uk, 13% in australia, 37% in canada. but here is the worst stat, guns are now the leading cause of death among children in america. that's according to the new england journal of medicine. this isn't pro life. this is inconsistent with the vision of the founders, the second amendment call for a well-regulated militia or even frontier gun culture where you often had to leave your guns at the town line. it's come about because we've twisted our gun laws to disconnect from any concept of common sense. if you talk about limiting specific weapons these days you will get called a nanny state socialist or worst so nobody better mention that the machine gun was ref i will rel lated in the 1930 with the support of the
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nra. november new article of gun faith is the right to walk around town carrying a weapon of war but that definitely wasn't the case when the black panthers did it in the late 1960s. listen to then california governor ronald reagan. >> there is absolutely no reason why out on the street civilians should be carrying a loaded weapon. >> and more recently supreme court justice antonin scalia freely acknowledged the legitimacy of, quote, long-standing prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings where laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms. so stop pretending there's nothing we can do in the face of kids getting killed at school. that this is some inevitable byproduct of freedom because that's bs. not only is there plenty of room for common sense gun reforms, there is much more common ground
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than you might think. check it out, this pugh survey from 2021 shows that 85% of republicans and 90% of democrats support preventing people with mental illness from buying guns. common sense, right? not only that, 70% of republicans and 92% of democrats support background checks for buying weapons at gun shows and private sales. 66% of all americans support creating a federal gun database to track gun sales. 64% of americans support banning high capacity ammunition magazines and 63% of americans support banning assault-style weapons. policy that our country had in place from '94 to 2004 but was allowed to sunset after which mass shootings rose dramatically. there's also broad agreement to allowing people to carry concealed weapons without a permit is a terrible idea. we will see if the supreme court agrees in a few weeks. finally, according to the quinnipiac poll from last year
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74% of americans support red flag laws which allow police or family members to petition a judge to remove guns from a person who is deemed to be dangerous to themselves or others. some conservatives in congress have indicated some openness here. now, look, i know cynicism passes for wisdom in washington for a reason. no bipartisan gun reforms passed after sandy hook so why would this time be different? well, maybe because we have had a decade more of mass shootings. because the nra has been hobbled by self-inflicted scandals and because these stats are evidence that there is common ground to be found. modest actions that could lower the number of gun deaths in america, entirely consistent with the second amendment. the only question is whether members of congress will have the courage to listen to the majority of americans. it's a test of our decency as well as a test for our democracy. and that's your reality check. >> test of our humanity.
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>> yeah. >> john avalon, thank you. berman? all right. we're getting new details on what happened here at the robb elementary school as parents did arrive on the scene as this massacre was still happening. joining me now is lieutenant chris oliveras spokesman for the texas department of public safety. we have learned more details, we are still looking to fill in some of the gaps here so i do appreciate your help. i do understand when the shooter arrived here you have said he was engaged by a school resource officer. engaged how? >> right. so good morning. so, yes, as you mentioned, of course, our main focus right now as the lead investigating agency is to provide factual information, gather the facts. right now what we're trying to establish an corroborate exactly what was that role for that initial school resource officer,
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was he responding in his vehicle? was he off his vehicle? what was the distance between him and the insure? we are trying to establish exactly what was his role and how did he encounter the shooter. so we spoke to that school resource officer yesterday evening, our texas rangers did an interview with him so i'm hoping to receive updated information today at some point in regards to what was his exact role when he initially saw the shooter prior to going into the school. >> was he armed? >> yeah, so these are police officers, their title is the school resource officer, they are assigned to particular schools, but they are armed. they are commissioned police officers. >> and are you aware at this point if he did fire his weapon? >> at this point we are not. initially there was information, there was preliminary reports that as far as engagement, there was an encounter between him and the shooter at some point, that
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there was gunfire exchanged, but right now we are trying to corroborate that information. that's why we spoke to the officer yesterday as part of this investigation because, again, we want to provide factual information to make sure we corroborate every statement, every -- as far as anybody that's making statements out there to corroborate whatever is being shared. that's why it's very important also for anybody, anyone out there that has heard or witnessed anything to contact the texas department of public safety so we can speak to them and corroborate their statements. >> i understand that. and that's what we want. we want the accurate information. >> right. >> at this point what you're telling me is that the officer was armed, unclear if he did fire his weapon. i do want to ask you about the door to the school. the shooter gets into the school. was the door locked? >> so what we know right now and, again, everything is still preliminary, we're still trying to establish what security measures were in place. we do know for a fact that the shooter was able to make entry into that school unimpeded as
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far as there is no type of security, as far as locking mechanisms at that initial doorway. we're trying to establish exactly what were the policies, what were the procedures for the school. so we're working closely with the school district, in the superintendents to see what the policies were in place. also what i want to add with that initial school resource officer, once we're able to corroborate what was his role, we do know for a fact that the shooter was carrying a backpack prior to entering the school and that backpack was left at the doorway prior to entering. so we know that backpack contained numerous magazines, numerous rounds of ammunition. so that ammo could have been used to carry out potential killings inside that school. so that's one key point that i want to point out that that backpack was left behind. >> understand. the backpack was left behind, so as bad as it was what happened here what you're saying is it could have been even worse. the door was not locked, the shooter gets in.
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we do understand that there then was an encounter with other law enforcement officers who had arrived on the scene where shots were exchanged back and forth. can you tell us definitively was that before or after he entered the building? >> so when the initial school resource officer arrived on scene, there were several other police officers from uvalde that arrived as well immediately and as that gunman entered the school way -- entered that hallway of the school, those police officers also followed right behind that shooter. at that point there was gunfire exchanged, they were met with gunfire upon entering the school, those two police officers were shot. at that point the gunman was able to barricade himself inside the classroom in which he carried out those mass killings where 19 children were killed, as well as the two teachers. >> again, it is still chilling
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to hear you say that. but the shots themselves were exchanged inside the school, correct? >> right. so we're also trying to establish also as far as how far were those officers inside the school. did this occur right at the doorway or were they able to make entry? and if they did make entry, how far were they inside the school prior to those shots going off? but we do know for a fact and i can tell you factually that those officers were shot by the gunman upon entering the school. >> what's their condition this morning? >> so they sustained nonlife-threatening injuries, the officers that were involved, as well as the border patrol agent. they all have been released from the hospital. again, we're trying to speak to those individuals as well and corroborate any information as far as their role, but i can tell you for a fact, as i mentioned, they were met with gunfire, they did enter that school. >> okay. the shooter barricaded himself inside the classroom.
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barricaded himself how exactly? >> so what we do know is that the gunman was able to make entry into the classroom, we're still trying to establish if there was any type of locking mechanisms on the doorway from the inside of the classroom because the gunman was able to barricade himself. we know there was adjoining classrooms where he was barricading himself and that's where he was able to carry out that mass shooting where also there were 17 injured in that close proximity of that classroom. so, again, trying to establish exactly how he was able to barricade himself in that classroom. we know that the initial -- well, actually, the secondary response team, the tactical team that was comprised of border patrol, local police officers, also county deputies were challenged at that doorway. they were unable to make initial entry, but, again, at that point they were able to successfully force their way into that doorway, into that classroom where they were able to shoot and kill the shooter before he could carry out any other
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potential killings. >> when you say "barricaded" it indicates that somehow he created a literal barrier to entry, a physical barrier either by locking or putting something in the way of the door. to what extent did that happen? >> right. right. correct. >> he put -- >> what i mean by barricaded. what i am referring to is he barricaded. that could have been by blocking the classroom inside where no one could make entry. we know for a fact, that secondary response team this arrived on scene, they were challenged. what i mean by that, they were met with gunfire. they were trying to get into that classroom. we are trying to establish if that classroom was locked. if it was loblgd, was there a barricade, a locking mechanism that did not allow those officers to make entry.
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but they were able to by force make entry into that classroom. >> reporter: ultimately, they were able by force. okay. the shooter senior inside this classroom, these twoed a joining classrooms. how long was he in there? >> right. i understand that's what everyone wants to know is a time line. we are treeing to establish a time line with the initial shooting with the grandmother to the time the shooter was killed. in between that we are trying to establish every single time line, how long the shoopter was in the classroom, how long did you do the shooting take place. we want to provide factual information as a posed to time lines that are preliminary. we estimate anywhere from 40 minutes to an hour. that was made by our diplomatic of safety. we are trying to establish, was that comprised of the initial shooting when the suspect was killed or when the suspect arrived at school.
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again, all the information to provide to the viewers and to everyone else and to the victims of the families. >> okay. i do understand that. all of my questions are just trying to provide the biggest, most complete pick to the families, to the country as to what happened here. you say 40-to-60 minutes, you say that's when the shooter arrived or into this classroom. it's still a long time. why did it take as long as it did for the tactical teams to go in? >> well, we'll turn back to, we know several officer were off document they still responded to the scene. the response time, we know officers were on scene, we mentioned earlier, the school initial officer was again trying to establish his roam. we had secondary officers that were met with gunfire upon entering the school. law enforcement was there.
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there was an immediate presence of law enforcement. trying to gather a time line, working with the fbi, gathering surveillance video, talking to witnesses. again, right now, we do not have an accurate or concrete time lean to say the gunman was in the school for this period. so we want want to obtain that factual information once we attain that. >> i understand. but there was a period of time when the gunman was in the school and there were law enforcement officers on scene and those that were here during that period were not going in. correct? >> well, as i mention theed, there was two officers that did make entry when that shooter was making entry to the school. so there was an immediate response. right after that we had a special response team that was comprised of local police officer, a county deputy. they all made entry into that
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school. other officer tried to evacuate children and teachers breaking windows trying to pull children and teachers from those windows to evacuate them to preserve any more loss of life. there was immediate response. trying to establish a time line, we're working on that right now. that's all a part of the investigation. >> understood. i was trying to establish between the time when the officers were furs met with gunfire and the attempt that did ultimately break down the door, what was the nature of that pause between those two periods, that's what i am trying to get at there the it's during those periods that we are hearing stories about parents that arrived on scene. they spoke with the father of jacqueline casares killed here. he said there were five or six of us fathers hearing the gunshots and police officers were telling us to move back. we didn't care about us.
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we wanted to storm the building. we were saying, let's go! because that's how worried we were. we wanted to get our babies out. so these fathers were willing to go in. why were they stopped? >> right. i can tell you right now as a father myself, i wanted to go in, too. it's a volatile situation. we have an active shooter situation. with retrying to preserve any further loss of life. we cannot have as pup as they want to go in, we cannot have individuals going into that school, especially if they're not armed. there are so many different components involved in an active shooter situation. we have officers on scene trying to set up a perimeter so we cannot have any other individuals go into that school. i understand, as a father, myself, i would want to go if whether i was arm or not armed to save my child again, it's a volatile situation some many components involved. unanswered questions.
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that's what we are trying to do with a thorough investigation. >> what video evidence do you have from the scene? >> so as of right now, we're working with fbi. fbi is driving to obtain surveillance from the school. they're doing digital cell phone for instancics as well what i mean is trying to establish or maintain information from the suspect's phone, if there was any social media posts that was posted, any other facts that would help the case in terms of as far as there were any indicators for this shooter leading up to this mass shooting. trying to establish to get all those facts, all that evidence, talking to witnesses and what will be a key witness is a grandmother. our prayers are with her. we hope she pulls through. he is critical at this time. she is a key witness to tell us the history of her grandson and if there was any indicators prior to this mass shooting. >> did the school have
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surveillance video? >> from what we understand right now, yes. that's what the fbi is working on. i can't go into detail. that is a component, something they are trying to establish as well. that's a part of their investigative efforts. once we are able to obtain that information and put it together, we will having a rat information to provide as far as this investigation. >> all right. leiutenant chris olivares, i do appreciate you being with us. this isn't about second-guessing. it's about trying to understand, the families as you well know have questions. you have been here. you have been oak. we all appreciate your continued willingness to talk to us so much. we look forward to speaking with you again. >> thank you. >> so, the father of the uvalde elementary school shooting victim ten-year-old avery joe garza spoke to cnn about the
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pain she going through after this loss of his daughter. >> do you realize the girl she was? oh, my baby. she's my baby. >> reporter: how can you shoot my baby? more from this heart breaking interview ahead. throughout history i've observed markets shshaped by the intentional and unfoforeseeable. for investors who can navigate this landscape, leveraging golold, a strategic and sustainable asset... the path is gilded with the potential for rich returns.
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your shipping manager left to “find themself.” leaving you lost. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. indeed instant match instantly delivers quality candidates matching your job description. visit indeed.com/hire . >> good morning to our viewers here and all over the world. it is may 26th. i am in uvalde, texas. brianna keilar is in texas. we stand outside the robb elementary school. you can see the sign there. there were people walking up all day yesterday with flower es and balloons.
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