Chaotic Law Enforcement Response to the Khaled-Khloie ‘1938-84 Shooting and the Blame of the Top Officials
A large group of law enforcement officers from more than two dozen agencies were at the scene that day. The recordings reflect a growing awareness from members of the group that the response was failing. More than one officer knew at an early point that the gunman was still in the classroom with students.
Khloie was a student. There was a girl at the time. It would be 40 minutes from the time of her first call until law enforcement forced their way into her classroom.
According to reports, the newly surfaced recordings include more than 20 calls, including those between officers and dispatchers, and reveal a chaotic response without clear communication. At least one time a dispatcher gave misinformation to personnel.
The law enforcement response to the shooting has been widely criticized, with agencies failing to take responsibility and blaming each other. Several top officials have been fired.
What Do We Need to Know About Public Safety? A Call from Khloie Torres, 10, and a Call from the Texas Sheriff’s Office
Her mother, Jamie Torres, said it hurt to know Khloie called and still waited that long for help. The kids had no backup in there. The armor that she told “CNN This Morning” was not in there. They had no help from the police.
An investigation by a Texas legislative committee revealed that law enforcement’s radio signals were choppy inside the school building. Pete Arredondo abandoned his radio at the fence of the Uvalde School after he was fired as police chief.
Despite hearing a lot of gunshots and seeing the man in one of the rooms, officers didn’t hear screams or cries because they didn’t know what was happening behind the closed doors.
After a responding officer’s wife was shot at the school, and he called her husband saying she was “dying,” officers didn’t go into the classroom.
He acknowledged there were victims at 12:20 p.m., saying on footage obtained through another officer’s body cam that “We have victims in there. I don’t want to have any more. You know what I’m saying?”
The clear plea comes in a 12:10 p.m. call from Khloie Torres, then 10 years old and trapped at Robb Elementary School with a gunman who has slaughtered her friends and a teacher. Khloie is now 11.
Nineteen children and two teachers were killed that day, as were at least one adult and one child. The Director of the Department of Public Safety in Texas admitted to failures and insisted that his department did not fail the community.
Radio Information from Khloie’s Mother and the Emergency Medical Officer in the Building after the September 11, 2001, School Shooting: A Conversation with Ruben Torres
CNN obtained the calls from a source and is using excerpts with the approval of Khloie’s parents. CNN informed the families of the people who died in the massacre.
Khloie’s father, Ruben Torres, a former Marine, said he knew how hard it was to give good information when under fire. He said that the things his daughter did were incredible. He said none of the adults had courage that day.
“I need help … please. Have you captured the person? The child asks at 12:25 p.m. And a few minutes later, “You want me to open the door now?”
“I’m telling everyone to be quiet but nobody is listening to me,” she tells the operator. “I understand what to do in these situations. My dad taught me when I was a little girl. Send help.”
At 12:12 p.m. the radio call goes out: “Uvalde to any units: Be advised we do have a child on the line … room 12 [sic]. Is anyone in that building at this time?
There was plenty of confusion at the start of the massive response to the school shooting, which came after the gunman shot his grandmother in the head and crashed a truck near the school, both of which triggered emergency calls.
“We don’t know if he has anybody in the room with him, do we?” asks an officer in the hallway outside the classrooms. “He does,” comes the reply. There are between eight and nine children.
While some are talking about gas masks and shields and a command post, an emergency medic from Border Patrol arrives. He knows about the children.
When a gunman shot and killed a 4-year-old girl in Uvalde, Texas, killed herself and her classmate Eva Mireles
Khloie tells police how she knew how to make a call on her teacher’s phone even though she wasn’t allowed to because of her father’s restrictions.
She also told of how she had time to try to help her friends while the gunman was in the adjoining classroom, where he killed all the students and wounded the teacher.
The girl is alive. She is taken to the hospital on a school bus with other injured classmates where she’s able to speak face to face with one of the responders, saying she was on the phone.
By then, armed responders were stacked up outside the connecting classrooms 111 and 112, where they waited and talked and checked equipment and looked for tools until a team finally entered the rooms and killed the gunman.
They could hear her trying to help her teacher Eva Mireles, who had been shot and later died, while also giving their room number to Khloie, who was fairly new to Uvalde and the school. And when Khloie relays the operator’s directive for them to all keep quiet, Miah tries to hush her panicked and injured fellow fourth graders.
The officers need to hear this audio so they understand what the kids are going through.
They did not know a total of 376 officers from 23 local, state and federal agencies were responding, many then just feet away from them, their injured friends and teachers. One child and a teacher died after the initial attack.
And now, Miah’s parents Abigale Veloz and Miguel Cerrillo want all those officers to hear the call from their daughter, who had been injured by flying shrapnel in her shoulders and head.
Children calling in to report being hurt or in the classroom show the responding officers that they are not interested in their safety.
Wednesday was the first time Miah’s parents had heard the call and they said it helped them to understand more of what Miah had told them about that day and what she had gone through.
“Hi, can you please send help?” Miah asks at 12:19 p.m., 46 minutes since the shooter was seen entering the room but still more than 30 minutes from when he was stopped.
Are they in the building? she asks repeatedly about the law enforcement response. Her mother said Miah believed officers were still trying to find a way to get close to them, never imagining that they were stacked up on the other side of the door, just feet away.
Her family has tried to shield her from learning more about the failed response, but last month she found some of the body camera video online showing the distraction, delay and lack of communication.
Miah was able to tell CNN days later how she smeared blood on herself and played dead in the hope the gunman would leave her alone if he came back from the adjoining classroom. She even testified to the US Congress, sending a video message to a House committee investigating gun violence when she said what she wished for was “to have security.”
“She’s not Miah anymore,” her mother said simply, remembering how her middle child used to love playing pranks with her siblings and is now afraid of any loud noise.