EDITORIAL: The horror of Robb Elementary School

At least two children placed 911 calls from a pair of adjoining fourth-grade classrooms at Robb Elementary School in the US after Salvador Ramos, an 18-year-old high school dropout, entered the premises with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and started firing indiscriminately, killing nineteen children and two teachers.

"He’s in room 112," a girl whispered on the phone at 12:03 p.m. The same girl had implored a 911 operator to "please send the police now" at 12:43 p.m. and again four minutes later. At 12:51, or more than 45 minutes after she made her first 911 call, a U.S. Border Patrol-led tactical team stormed in and ended the siege at the Robb Elementary School.

In all, at least eight calls to emergency services were placed from inside while law enforcement waited outside. It remains unclear how many of the 9- and 10-year-old schoolchildren may have been killed during that time. The two children who placed calls survived.

Can you imagine the sense of horror and what must have been going through the minds of those poor children and the school staff? How could this be happening again? Why us? What did we do?

Investigators in Texas have sought to determine how critical mistakes were made in the response to the deadly Uvalde school shooting, including why nearly 20 officers remained outside a classroom as children placed panicked 911 calls for help.

Why the officers waited in the hallway nearly an hour before entering and fatally shooting the gunman is at the heart of a probe by the Texas Department of Public Safety into the massacre - the deadliest U.S. school shooting in nearly a decade.

Calls for an independent probe and criticism of the law enforcement response is growing. But, that’s really only fudging the issue - this shooter bought two semi-automatic rifles having just turned eighteen. Surely, the gun laws have to be reviewed? How much more will it take before change is effected?

This week we think of those lost and the bereaved.

Rest in Peace.