Teacher wounded in Uvalde shooting: ‘No excuse’ for police inaction

A teacher injured in the shooting at a Texas elementary school last month says he cannot forgive law enforcement for taking more than an hour to stop the gunman who killed 11 of his students and 10 others in the school next room killed.

Arnulfo Reyes, a third and fourth grade teacher at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, was shot twice when a gunman entered his classroom and opened fire, killing 11 of his students.

When it was taken down, the gunman had killed 19 students and two teachers in adjacent classrooms.

“After all, I’m getting even angrier because you’ve got a bulletproof vest. I had nothing! I had nothing,” Reyes said from his hospital bed during an interview with Good Morning America.

“Thou shalt protect and serve… There is no excuse for their actions. And I’ll never forgive them,’ he said.

The police response to the shooting drew increasing criticism as more information emerged about officers’ delays and other miscalculations in their actions.

The year-end awards had been given out and Reye’s class was on their way back to their classroom to see The Addam’s Family when the shooting broke out.

“It would be a good day,” Reyes said. “There was nothing unusual that day, we just went back to the classroom … to watch the rest of the film.”

However, around 11:30 a.m., he heard a bang and quickly told his students to take cover under their desks.

“The kids were screaming, ‘What’s the matter, Mr. Reyes?'” he said. ‘[The students] went under the table and I was trying to get them to do it as soon as possible.’

“When I turned around, I saw him straight away,” Reyes said.

Reyes recounted the terrifying moment he saw the shooter and how he immediately told his students to pretend to sleep to survive.

“I’ve told my kids to pretend to be asleep, so I’m going to pretend to be asleep too. And I prayed and prayed that I didn’t hear any of my students speak,” he said.

After being hit once in the arm, Reyes also pretended to be unconscious. The gunman shot him a second time, piercing his back and lungs.

“It all happened too fast. Training, no training, all types of training — nothing prepares you for that,” he said. “We taught our kids to sit under the table and that’s what I thought about at the time. But we set them up to be like ducks.”

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