This article was updated to adhere with AtNight Media’s Code of Ethics
Uvalde’s Mayor, Don McLaughlin, has disclosed that a negotiator made frantic attempts to contact the teenage gunman, Salvador Ramos, during the recent mass shooting in the city, Your Content has learned.
In an interview with The Washington Post and Telemundo San Antonio, Mayor McLaughlin shared the details, explaining that the negotiator’s primary objective was to establish communication with Ramos.
“We exhausted every possible phone number to reach out to him,” Mayor McLaughlin stated during the sit-down interview held at Uvalde’s City Hall.
Despite their efforts, Ramos, an 18-year-old high school dropout who had already shot his grandmother, did not respond to the negotiator’s attempts.
During the incident, as law enforcement personnel positioned themselves to engage Ramos, Mayor McLaughlin encountered the negotiator near the school.
Ramos had barricaded himself in a classroom where he ultimately took the lives of 19 children and two adults.
It later emerged that some of the students trapped in the same classroom had managed to make desperate 911 calls, pleading for help as the authorities waited for over an hour.
Mayor McLaughlin clarified that he believes the negotiator was unaware of the children’s pleas for rescue at the time.
His disclosure sheds light on the tragic events surrounding the Uvalde massacre, raising questions about the response and communication efforts during the critical moments of the incident, according to NBC.
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