UVALDE, Texas — Questions continue to mount about the law enforcement response to the shooting inside Uvalde's Robb Elementary where 21 people were killed Tuesday.
Authorities say first responders arrived on the scene within four minutes, but the shooter was at the school for about an hour before officers breached the classroom door and killed him.
Witnesses say during that time, police outside the school worked to prevent increasingly desperate family members from entering the building themselves.
“There was some time I just wanted to run in,” said Justin Rodriguez, whose nephew was struck by gunfire but survived the attack. "Yes, these officers had Tasers ready. But at that point, I did not care whatsoever.”
He said a bullet ricocheted off the child’s leg. He tried to save a friend, but she didn’t make it.
“He was trying to help a classmate,” the uncle said. "He got in front of her.”
Rodriguez lives a few blocks from the school and ran to the scene. A video circulating on social media this week purports to show angry parents and family members wanting to rush inside the elementary school.
“I believe I could speak for everyone here, we all just wanted to run through everybody and take out that one person,” he said. "Could we have done it? Yes, I believe we could have. But more lives would have been sacrificed.”
Rodriguez said he got really close.
“We all ran right there by the gate, they didn’t let no one in,” he said. "But, yes, there were some people jumping the fences.”
On Thursday, Texas Department of Public Safety officials were asked about the videos. Regional Director Victor Escalon said they heard about the footage, but have not verified it, adding it's part of the ongoing investigation.
In the Thursday update, Texas DPS said the gunman was not confronted by officers before he entered the building, contradicting earlier information that a district police officer attempted to stop him. Uvalde Police said the shooter was at the school for about an hour before he was killed.
Escalon said that, four minutes after the gunman entered the building, "law enforcement are coming in to solve this problem."
That was about 11:44 a.m., about 15 minutes after the first 911 call. At 12:45 p.m., a tactical unit from Border Patrol arrived and breached the room.
One fourth grader who was in the classroom and survived shared his account of what happened as law enforcement assembled at the school and prepared to enter the room.
"When I heard the shooting through the door, I told my friend to hide under something so he won't find us," he said. “I was hiding hard. And I was telling my friend to not talk because he is going to hear us.”
The boy and four others hid under a table that had a tablecloth over it. He also shared how one student who had survived most of the ordeal was shot just before officers breached the door after somebody told anyone in the room to call out for help.
“When the cops came, the cop said: 'Yell if you need help!' And one of the persons in my class said 'help.' The guy overheard and he came in and shot her," the boy said. "The cop barged into that classroom. The guy shot at the cop. And the cops started shooting.”
Congressman Joaquin Castro is now calling for the FBI to investigate the events that unfolded Tuesday. He wrote a letter to the bureau's director, urging him to use maximum authority to examine the timeline of events amid the inconsistent reports.
Authorities have confirmed that they are looking into the response time of Uvalde police officers amid discrepancies in statements about the actions taken as law enforcement arrived at the scene.