A Mother Who Was Handcuffed Outside the Texas School Shooting Later Ran Into the School and Pulled Her Two Children to Safety
Azmi Haroun Business Insider
A mother who was handcuffed outside the Texas school shooting later ran into the school and pulled her two children to safety: report. (photo: Marco Bello/Reuters)
27 May 22
Angeli Rose Gomez, a farm supervisor working nearby who has children in second and third grade at Robb, told the Journal that she drove 40 miles to the school when she heard about the shooting, only to see an apparent lack of response from law enforcement as the gunman barricaded himself in a classroom.
"The police were doing nothing," Gomez told The Journal. "They were just standing outside the fence. They weren't going in there or running anywhere."
Chilling reports have emerged of parents pushing past law enforcement to rescue their children by any means, their efforts growing increasingly dire as the gunman remained in the school. Law enforcement officials have given conflicting accounts of what was happening during the 40 minutes the gunman was inside – as groups of police remained outside.
According to The Journal, Gomez was put in handcuffs by federal marshals for "intervening in an active crime scene," as she and other parents demanded officers enter the school. Gomez persuaded Uvalde law enforcement officers to release her, and she moved away from the crowd.
Gomez then hopped the school fence, sprinted inside the school to grab her children and made it out of the school with them alive.
Another parent was pepper-sprayed as he attempted to get into the school, and a father was tackled by authorities, Gomez told The Journal.
The Uvalde Police Chief said on Thursday that officers responded to the shooting at Robb Elementary School "within minutes," but did not specify whether those officers entered the school building and engaged the gunman in that timespan.
On Wednesday, Texas Department of Public Safety director Steve McCraw said that roughly "40 minutes" to "an hour" elapsed between the time the shooter breached the school and when a US Border Patrol agent killed him. The shooting suspect shot and killed 19 students and two teachers, and 17 people were also injured in the attack.
