A dad’s anguish outside Texas school while shooting unfolded
Associated PressUVALDE, Texas — Javier Cazares raced to his daughter’s school when he heard there was a shooting, leaving his truck running with the door open as he ran into the school yard. Authorities initially said Ramos exchanged fire with a school police officer before entering the building, but they later said the officer was not actually on campus and “sped” back upon hearing of the shooter. Authorities said Ramos exchanged fire from the classroom with the officers in the hallway and two of them suffered “grazing wounds.” The first police on the scene were outgunned by Ramos’ powerful, high-end rifle, according to a man who watched from a nearby home. ___ Police didn’t breach the classroom faster because the commander inside the building — the school district’s police chief, Pete Arredondo — believed the situation had morphed from an active shooting to a hostage situation, said McCraw, of the Texas Department of Public Safety. ___ The loss of so many young lives and the admission of errors by police have cast doubt, even for some Second Amendment-supporters in the Texas community, on a refrain the state’s Republican leaders have used after this and other mass shootings: “What stops armed bad guys is armed good guys.” Cazares, a gun owner and supporter of the Second Amendment, said he shies away from politics — but added that he thinks there should be stricter gun laws, including better background checks.