Texas School Where 21 Were Killed In Mass Shooting To Be Demolished: Mayor

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The police in Uvalde have faced public anger, with parents accusing the cops of waiting for an hour before entering the school and killing the gunman.

Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, where a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers will be demolished, the school’s mayor has said. The BBC reported that the mayor, Don McLaughlin, made the announcement during a council meeting on Tuesday, during which residents demanded answers about the shooting.

He, however, did not specify a date for the school’s demolition, the outlet further said.

“My understanding – and I had this discussion with the superintendent – is that school will be demolished. You can never ask a child to go back or teacher to go back in that school ever,” Mr McLaughlin was quoted as saying by the BBC.

The mass shooting, one of America’s worst, took place on May 24. The local police have faced public anger, with parents accusing the cops of waiting for an hour before entering the school and killing the gunman – 18-year-old Salvador Ramos.

Steve McCraw, Texas’s public safety chief, told state senators probing the handling of the tragedy that police had enough officers and gear to stop the shooter minutes after he entered the school.

But instead they waited almost one hour and 15 minutes to confront Ramos as he carried out his attack.

“The only thing stopping the hallway of dedicated officers from entering room 111 and 112 was the on-scene commander, who decided to place the lives of officers before the lives of children,” said Mr McCraw.

Ramos kept raining bullets on Class 4 students after entering the school as the police waited outside. Horrific details later emerged from the site of the mass shooting, which talked about some students playing dead to survive.

Uvalde Police chief, however, defended the action and blamed the delay on a hard-to-find key.

Robb elementary won’t be the first school to be demolished after a mass shooting. In 2012, Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, was razed after more than two dozen students and staff members were killed in similar incident.