Officer Ruben Ruiz got a call from his wife, teacher Eva Mireles, during the massacre and allegedly told him "she had been shot and was dying,” Texas Department of Public Safety Director Col. Steven McCraw testified on Tuesday.
The police officer husband of Eva Mireles, one of the teachers slain in last month's mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, was detained and removed from the scene as he was on his way to save her, an official said Tuesday during a Texas Senate Committee hearing.
Officer Ruben Ruiz got a call from his wife during the massacre and she allegedly told him "she had been shot and was dying,” Texas Department of Public Safety Director Col. Steven McCraw testified on Tuesday, WFAA reported.
"We got an officer whose wife called him and said she'd been shot and she's dying," McCraw said. "He tried to move forward into the hallway. He was detained, and they took his gun away from him and escorted him off the scene."
McCraw did not say who detained and escorted Ruiz from the scene, People reported.
Mireles, a fourth grade teacher, was one of the two educators who was killed in the school shooting on May 24, when an 18-year-old gunman entered the elementary school and shot 19 students.
The hearing casts an even larger blemish on authorities who have been criticized for not acting sooner during the shooting.
McCraw also criticized Pete Arredondo, the Uvalde school district police chief who says he was in charge.
"The only thing stopping a 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," McCraw said.
McCraw said it was "an abject failure" on the police’s response, adding, "the officers had weapons; the children had none.”
"The officers had body armor; the children had none. The officers had training; the subject had none. One hour, 14 minutes and eight seconds. That's how long children waited, and the teachers waited, in Room 111 to be rescued,” he added.
The hearings come as Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin spoke at a council meeting and said that Robb Elementary will be demolished.
“You can never ask a child to go back or a teacher to go back in that school ever,” he said.
He said that after speaking with the school superintendent, Robb Elementary will be demolished.
“My understanding — and I had this discussion with the superintendent — that school will be demolished,” he said.
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