How a gunman wreaked havoc: A visual breakdown of what went wrong at Robb Elementary (2024)

8 - 10:30 a.m. Families attend an awards ceremony for students at Robb Elementary. For some parents, it is the last time they see their children alive.

11:06 a.m. Salvador Ramos, 18, sends a private message to a girl in Germany that he met through a livestreaming app. He says he's with his grandparents, and he's waiting for his grandfather to leave. Minutes later, he hints at what's about to happen.

Between 11:10 and 11:21 a.m. Ramos shoots his 66-year-old grandmother in the face.

11:21 a.m. Ramos sends a final private message. He climbs into his grandmother's pickup and drives east.

11:30 a.m. The teacher comes back outside and calls 911. It is the first 911 call about the incident. Once she sees Ramos jump a fence and enter the school grounds carrying a rife, the teacher runs back inside and pulls the door shut behind her. For reasons still under investigation, the door does not lock.

11:31 a.m.In the parking lot of the school, Ramos hides behind vehicles as a school police officer drives by and mistakes a teacher for the possible shooter. Ramos shoots into classroom windows while walking toward a door on the west side of the school.

11:33 a.m. Meeting no police resistance, Ramos enters the school and walks down a hallway, turning right and then left, all the while firing his rifle. He enters classrooms 111 and 112. The rooms are connected by a jack-and-jill bathroom and are filled with 8-, 9- and 10-year-olds. Ramos locks the door behind him.

11:35 a.m. Three Uvalde police officers enter through the same door Ramos used. Three more officers and a deputy join them outside the classrooms. Ramos shoots at the officers through the closed door, grazing two of them. They decide to wait for backup and heavy tactical equipment rather than force their way into the classrooms.

11:43 a.m. Robb Elementary posts on Facebook that the school has been locked down because of “gunshots in the area.”

Approximately 11:45 a.m. - 12:45 p.m. Parents gather outside the school. Law enforcement blocks them from entering. Frantic parents beg the officers to go into the school and save their children.

12:03 p.m. More officers arrive. As many as 19 are in the hallway outside the classrooms. But they do not try to enter. A child inside the school calls 911 and whispers to the dispatcher that she’s in room 112.

12:10 p.m. The 911 caller in room 112 calls back and says multiple people are dead.

12:15 p.m. Members of BORTAC, a Border Patrol tactical unit, begin to arrive at the school.

12:16 p.m. A 911 caller says eight or nine people are still alive. Still, police do not try to enter the classrooms.

12:21 p.m. BORTAC agents with ballistic shields arrive.

12:36 p.m. The initial caller reaches 911 to say Ramos has fired shots through the classroom door. The student is asked to stay on the line and keep quiet. The call lasts 21 seconds.

12:43 p.m. The student again calls 911 and asks the dispatcher to send the police in immediately. Three minutes later, she calls back to say she can hear police officers next door.