CNN created this timeline of events with information provided by the Texas Department of Public Safety, social media posts and other reporting that offers a look into what came before the shooting at Robb Elementary and a minute-by-minute breakdown into the attack – and how authorities responded to it.
Here’s what happened on May 24, from the time the shooter entered the school:
11:33 a.m. local time: The gunman enters the school and begins shooting into a classroom, which is connected to a second class. He shot “at least” 100 rounds, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw said.
11:35 a.m.: Three Uvalde Police Department officers enter through the same door as the suspect. Another three Uvalde police officers and a county sheriff follow, McCraw said, for a total of seven officers on scene.
The three initial officers went directly to the class door, which was closed, and two received grazing wounds from the shooter, McCraw said.
11:37 a.m.: Another 16 rounds are fired in the following minutes.
11:42 a.m.: A source close to a teacher receives a text saying there was an active shooter on campus. CNN saw the text chain and confirmed the timestamps.
11:43 a.m.: Robb Elementary announces on Facebook it’s under a lockdown status “due to gunshots in the area,” adding that “the students and staff are safe in the building.”
Roughly 11:44 a.m.: Officers are calling for additional resources, equipment, body armor, negotiators and evacuating students and teachers, DPS Regional Director Victor Escalon said.
11:51 a.m.: More officers arrive on scene, McCraw said.
12:03 p.m.: Officers continue to arrive in the hallway of the school. “There’s as many as 19 officers at that time in that hallway,” McCraw said.
12:03 p.m.: A young girl from inside one of the adjoining classrooms calls 911, identifies herself and whispers the classroom she is in. The call lasted a minute and 23 seconds. She calls back several minutes later and says multiple people are dead.
12:10 p.m.: First group of deputy US Marshals arrives on scene to assist “federal, state, and local law enforcement already on scene,” the Marshals Service said in its statement.
12:13 p.m.: The girl calls 911 again, McCraw said.
12:15 p.m.: Members of the Border Patrol’s tactical unit, BORTAC, arrive on scene, McCraw said.
(When Border Patrol agents began to arrive, the officer in charge of the situation had already made the determination that it was a barricaded subject situation, a source familiar with the situation said. The team then waited, not breaching the classroom where the shooter was holed up – until nearly 40 minutes later.
McCraw said the person who made that decision was the school district police chief, calling it the “wrong decision” not to engage with the gunman sooner.)
12:17 p.m.: Robb Elementary announces on Facebook that there is an active shooter at the school and authorities are at the scene.
12:16 p.m.: The girl calls 911 again and tells dispatchers there are eight to nine students alive, McCraw said.
12:19 p.m.: Another person calls 911 from one of the two classrooms and hangs up when another student tells her to, McCraw said.
12:21 p.m.: The suspect fires again. He was believed to be at the door, McCraw said. Law enforcement move down the hallway.
12:21 p.m.: Three shots fired are heard from another 911 call made.
12:36 p.m.: The initial student who called 911 calls again, is told to be very quiet and tells dispatchers “he shot the door,” McCraw said. The call lasted 21 seconds.
12:43 p.m.: The young girl asks dispatchers to “please send the police now.”
12:47 p.m.: The student asks for police again, McCraw said. A minute earlier, she had said she could hear the police next door.
12:50 p.m.: Law enforcement breach the locked classroom door using keys from a janitor, McCraw said. They shoot and kill the suspect.
12:51 p.m.: Through the young girl’s 911 call, there are loud noises and officers can be heard moving children out of the room, McCraw said. The child goes outside and the call cuts off.
Read more about the timeline and series of events prior to the shooting here.
