Investigating key moments before the massacre: what we know about the Uvalde, Texas elementary school shooting

The moment the attacker enters the Texas school 0:55

(CNN) --

We may never know why an 18-year-old gunman led one of America's deadliest massacres, shooting dead 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. .

But as the country mourns the loss of 21 lives, more details about the shooting and the investigation are emerging, along with disturbing questions about the timeline and police response to the shooting, including how long the shooter was at school and how he managed to keep police out of a classroom where the victims were killed.

More questions arose Thursday afternoon after officers revealed that no officers engaged the suspect before he entered the school, contradicting earlier reports that he encountered an armed school resource officer.

Here's what we know and don't know about the massacre in Uvalde, Texas.

The attacker shot his grandmother, sent a sinister text message with his plans and crashed his car

Salvador Ramos, 18, was the gunman who killed 21 people, authorities said.

advertising

Minutes before the horrific attack, Ramos allegedly sent a series of text messages to a teenage girl in Europe whom he had met online, describing how he had just shot his grandmother and would "shoot up an elementary school."

Ramos complained that her grandmother was "on the phone with AT&T about (sic) my phone," according to screenshots reviewed by CNN and an interview with the girl, whose mother gave permission for her to be interviewed.

"It's annoying," he said in a text message.

Six minutes later, he texted: "I just shot my grandma in the head."

Seconds later, he said, "I'm going to shoot up an elementary school (right now)."

• Salvador Ramos' mother and grandfather express confusion and remorse over Uvalde, Texas shooting

|

An 18-year-old man opened fire Tuesday at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, killing at least 19 students and two adults, authorities said.

In the image, Kladys Castellón prays during a vigil that took place in Uvalde on Tuesday night.

Billy Calzada/AP |

WATCH THE GALLERY ➡️

|

People pray Tuesday night at the Church of the Sacred Heart in Uvalde.

William Luther/AP

|

People take comfort outside the Civic Center in Uvalde.

Dario Lopez-Mills/AP

|

Police personnel run near the scene of the shooting.

US Customs and Border Protection, which is the largest law enforcement agency in the area, helped with the response to the incident.

Marco Bello/Reuters

|

A Texas State Trooper walks outside Robb Elementary School, where the shooting occurred.

Eric Thayer/Bloomberg/Getty Images

|

A woman reacts outside the Uvalde Civic Center.

Marco Bello/Reuters

|

A minor boards a school bus Tuesday under police surveillance.

Robb High School had 535 students in the 2020-21 school year, according to state data.

About 90% of the students are Hispanic and about 81% are economically disadvantaged, the data shows.

Thursday was going to be the last day of school before summer break.

Marco Bello/Reuters

|

People react outside the Civic Center.

With this, they add at least 30 shootings in primary and secondary schools in 2022. Marco Bello/Reuters

|

Police officers and other first responders gather outside the school after Tuesday's shooting.

Dario Lopez-Mills/AP

|

A woman cries and hugs a minor while she talks on the phone outside the Uvalde Civic Center.

Allison Dinner/AFP/Getty Images

|

A woman cries as she leaves the Civic Center.

William Luther/San Antonio Express-News/Zuma

|

Law enforcement officers stand outside the school after the shooting.

The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have been assisting local law enforcement with the investigation.

Dario Lopez-Mills/AP

|

People sit on the sidewalk outside the school as state police patrol the area.

Allison Dinner/AFP/Getty Images

|

Police walk near the school after the shooting.

Dario Lopez-Mills/AP

|

A woman and a minor leave the Uvalde Civic Center on Tuesday.

William Luther/San Antonio Express-News/Zuma

The 15-year-old girl, who lives in Frankfurt, Germany, had started chatting with Ramos on May 9 on a social media app, she said later.

Ramos told her Monday that he received a package of ammunition and that the bullets would expand when they hit someone, she said.

At some point, the girl asked him what he planned to do.

He told her it was a surprise and to "just wait," she said.

On Tuesday at 11:01 am CT, Ramos called her and told her he loved her, she said.

Then, about 20 minutes later, he texted her that he had shot her grandmother.

The 66-year-old woman was in serious condition Wednesday at a San Antonio hospital, authorities said.

This is the truck that authorities believe belonged to Ramos.

It's unclear why Ramos then targeted Robb Elementary School, a school of 535 students in grades 2 through 4 last school year.

Near campus, his vehicle crashed into a ditch, according to Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) Sgt. Eric Estrada.

The cause of the accident was not clear.

Then the horrific attack on the elementary school happened.

Ramos crashed his vehicle at 11:28 am, DPS Regional Director Victor Escalon said at a news conference Thursday.

He got out of his vehicle on the passenger side of his truck, carrying a rifle and a bag, Escalon said, citing witness accounts.

The gunman saw two witnesses at a funeral home across the street, Escalon said, and shot them before continuing to walk toward the school.

He climbed over a fence in a parking lot and started shooting at the school.

There were no officers at the school when the shooter arrived, Escalón said, contradicting earlier information released by his agency that said the shooter first encountered an armed school resource agent.

DPS officials had previously said the attacker "was confronted" by a school agent and that he dropped a black bag filled with ammunition outside the school during that encounter.

That earlier information "wasn't accurate," Escalón told reporters, and no one confronted the attacker from the moment he left his grandmother's house to the moment he entered the school.

The attacker, said Escalón, "entered without obstacles, initially."

Escalon said it appears the suspect walked through an unlocked door, "so we're going to look at that and try to corroborate that as best we can."

"We'll find out, as much as we can, why it was unlocked, or maybe it was locked. But right now it looks like it was unlocked," he said.

• "Joe died of a broken heart": Husband of teacher killed in Texas shooting dies two days later

Summary: Mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, timeline of the massacre and new testimonies 28:22

That door "is normally locked," said Ross McGlothlin, a former principal at the school.

"It's an exterior door that you don't need to go to unless you're going home on a school bus," McGlothlin told CNN on Thursday.

The district implemented a security plan with its own police force, social media monitoring and a threat reporting system to "provide a safe environment" for students, its website states.

It is unclear to what extent the plan was developed with active attackers in mind.

The shooter walked to the west side of the school at 11:40 am, Escalon said.

He crossed the school and entered the adjoining classroom with the doors open.

Four minutes after the gunman entered the school, Escalón said, officers from the Uvalde Police Department and the Uvalde School District entered the school and heard gunshots.

"The agents are there, the initial agents, they were shot, they don't go in initially because of the shots they are receiving. But we have agents who are asking for additional resources," Escalón said, describing requests for equipment such as bulletproof vests and personnel, including the negotiators.

While those calls were being made, officers were evacuating students and teachers from the school, he said.

An hour later, Escalon said, a tactical team made up of officers from the US Border Patrol (CBP), the Uvalde County Sheriff's Office and the Uvalde Police Department entered and fatally shot the suspect.

The attacker barricaded himself in adjoining classrooms where the 19 fourth-grade students and two teachers were killed, according to DPS officials.

It's unclear exactly how the attacker barricaded himself inside classrooms -- whether he locked the door or created a physical barrier, for example, Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman Chris Olivarez said Thursday morning.

"We are still trying to establish if there was some kind of locking mechanism on the door from inside the classroom."

More than 80 federal agents immediately responded to the carnage, and soon 150 converged on the area, Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz told CNN Wednesday.

Police and other security agents were shot by the barricaded shooter, Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Marsha Espinosa tweeted.

"At the risk of their own lives, these Border Patrol agents and other officers stepped between the shooter and children at the scene to divert the shooter's attention from potential victims and save lives," she wrote.

• No one confronted shooter before entering Robb Elementary School, Texas official says

A tribute to the victims of the massacre in Uvalde 1:46

Now authorities are investigating key questions

Authorities are still investigating and trying to put together a complete timeline, Escalón said at Thursday's news conference.

Amid the unknowns, questions arose about the police response.

"So, we're trying to establish every timeline as to how long the shooter was inside the classroom, how long the shooting lasted. But so far, we haven't been able to establish that," Olivarez told CNN.

On Thursday night, Olivarez said investigators are interviewing the responding officers and "trying to establish exactly what their role was."

"That will help us establish a more objective and concrete timeline, from the moment the attacker arrived at the school when he crashed to the moment he was killed and what happened in between," he said.

Emergency protocol calls for ending a threat as quickly as possible because deaths occur within seconds or minutes, experts said.

“According to the way active attacker training is implemented now, police officers are taught that they need a team of three. Once you have three officers…you go into the required formation and you go into that space wherever the shooter is," Andrew McCabe, CNN's senior law enforcement analyst, told CNN Thursday afternoon.

According to Escalon's account, at least three officers were on the scene at 11:44 a.m.

"You could argue that any of those officers should have gone in even earlier, but certainly at 11:44 (am), there were three officers there, that would be consistent with training," McCabe added.

What we know about the attacker, Salvador Ramos

See the messages the Texas shooter sent before the massacre 1:39

Salvador Ramos, the attacker, was a student at Uvalde High School, authorities said.

Three days before the shooting, a photo of two AR-15-style rifles surfaced on an Instagram account linked to Salvador Ramos.

One of Ramos' former classmates, who did not want to be identified, told CNN that Ramos recently sent him a photo showing an AR-15, a backpack with ammunition cartridges and several gun magazines.

"I was like, 'Brother, why do you have this?'

and he said, 'Don't worry about it,'" the friend said.

"He proceeded to text me, 'I look so different now. You wouldn't recognize me,'" the friend added.

The friend said that Ramos had stopped attending school regularly.

Ramos worked at a local Wendy's, the restaurant's manager told CNN.

The night manager, Adrian Mendes, said Ramos "mainly kept to himself" and "didn't really socialize with the other employees... He just worked, got paid and came to get his check."

The teenager in Germany who said she and Ramos had communicated for weeks said Ramos told her he spends a lot of time alone at home.

"Every time I talked to him," she said, "he never had any plans with his friends."

What we know about the victims of the shooting

On Wednesday morning, after hours of agony, several relatives of the victims confirmed that they had received devastating news.

On Wednesday morning, several families confirmed that they had received devastating news.

Just hours before he was killed, 10-year-old Xavier López was honored at Robb Elementary's honor roll ceremony, his mother, Felicha Martínez, told The Washington Post.

"I really couldn't wait to go to high school," he said.

Ángel Garza said he spent seven hours looking for his 10-year-old daughter.

He eventually learned that Amerie Jo Garza was among the children killed.

"Please don't take a second for granted," Garza posted on Facebook.

"Hug your family. Tell them you love them."

Eliahana 'Elijah' Cruz Torres, 10, was also one of the victims, her aunt Leandra Vera told CNN.

"Our baby gained her wings," she said.

Tess Marie Mata, also 10, was also killed in the shooting, her sister Faith Mata, 21, confirmed to the Washington Post.

Tess was a fourth grader who loved TikTok dances, Ariana Grande and the Houston Astros, Mata told the Post.

She had been saving money for a family trip to Disney World.

"My precious angel, you are loved so deeply. In my eyes, you are not a victim but a survivor. I love you forever and ever, little sister, may your wings rise higher than you could ever dream of," Mata wrote in Twitter.

Tess was a fourth grader who loved TikTok dances, Ariana Grande and the Houston Astros, Faith Mata told the Post.

Tess was saving money for a family trip to Disney World.

As of Thursday, six victims remained hospitalized, four of whom, including the attacker's grandmother, who is in serious condition, are at San Antonio University Hospital, according to the hospital.

Two 10-year-old girls are among those in hospital, one in serious condition and the other in fair condition.

A 9-year-old boy is in fair condition, the hospital said Thursday.

Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio was treating two adult patients from the shooting, both in serious condition, a spokesman said.

The remains of 19 victims had been taken to funeral homes by noon Thursday, and the last two would be released that afternoon, Judge Lalo Diaz said.

-- Isabelle Chapman, Daniel A. Medina, Paradise Afshar, Curt Devine, Jeff Winter, Evan Perez, Andy Rose, Priscilla Alvarez, Jamiel Lynch, Donie O'Sullivan, Jose Lesh, Amanda Jackson, David Williams, Sara Smart, Amanda Watts CNN's Chris Boyette, Joe Sutton, Joseph Bonheim and Jennifer Henderson contributed to this story.

InstaNewsSchool shootingTexas shooting