Gabriella Borter, Brad Brooks

UVALDE Texas (Reuters). Texas investigators sought to find out how the fatal shooting at Uvalde resulted in serious errors. This included why almost 20 officers remained behind a classroom of grade school students while children panickedly called 911 to seek help.

The Texas Department of Public Safety is currently investigating the murder of 19 schoolchildren and 2 teachers at Texas’ deadliest U.S. school shooting for nearly a decade.

Investigators continue to search for the motive behind this attack. Salvador Ramos (a high school dropout) had neither a criminal record nor a history of mental illness.

According to Colonel Steven McCraw of Texas Department of Public Safety earlier this week, at least two children called 911 from adjacent fourth-grade classrooms. Ramos (18) entered these classrooms with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle on Tuesday.

At 12:03 p.m., a young girl said, on the telephone, that “he’s in Room 112”. This happened more than 45 mins before U.S. Border Patrol tactical teams stormed in at 12.51 p.m. to end the siege at Robb Elementary school in Uvalde. Uvalde is home to 16,000 people, just west of San Antonio.

That same girl had called 911 and asked for help at 12:43 and four minutes after that.

McCraw explained that Ramos’s on-site commander was the head of the school district police department. He believed that Ramos was locked up inside. This gave McCraw time to prepare.

McCraw explained, “With the benefit of hindsight from where I sit now, ofcourse, it wasn’t a right decision.” It was the wrong decision. Period.

McCraw recognized that standard law enforcement protocol requires police to immediately confront active school shooters, and not wait for additional firepower or backup, as McCraw stated.

McCraw mentioned other times when Ramos could have been stopped. Responding to calls regarding an armed man driving a car across the street and crashing it into a funeral home, a school officer drove by Ramos, who was sat beside a school vehicle. Two people were standing out when Ramos opened fire on them, according to police. He then climbed a fence into school grounds.

McCraw claimed that Ramos had gained access to the structure because of a teacher who left it unlocked, in violation school district security protocols.

The criticisms of law enforcement’s response grew and officers from Houston and Dallas started arriving in Uvalde in support of local authorities. In some cases, they provided protection to Uvalde’s own police force, the mayor, and the gun shop that Ramos had purchased his arsenal.

Pedro Arredondo’s home was occupied by police cruisers. McCraw, Texas Governor Gregg Abbott and others have sharply criticised the police’s response to this shooting.

As the United States’ most prominent gun-rights advocacy organization, the National Rifle Association held its annual convention in Houston, 275 miles (443km) away, questions were raised about Ramos’ police attempts to stop him.

Republican Abbott was a staunch proponent of gun rights and addressed the gathering in pre-recorded audio. He spoke out about Uvalde’s apparent police mistakes and later said that he felt “livid” and misled.

Abbott said that the Texas gun laws recently enacted, which included a controversial measure to remove licensing requirements for concealed weapons, did not have “any relevance” to Tuesday’s bloodshed. Abbott suggested that state legislators focus their attention again on mental illness.

Joe Biden is a Democrat and has urged Congress for new restrictions on guns. He will visit Uvalde to offer comfort to families as well as pay his respects to young victims.