The gunman who killed multiple children and teachers walked into the school "unobstructed", according to police. Video / AP
A mother-of-two has described the moment she sprinted inside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde during the May 24 mass shooting to rescue her sons.
Farmworker Angeli Gomez had already attended the school that morning for her children's graduation ceremonies.
After the ceremonies concluded, Gomez went to work.
Within 10 minutes, Gomez received a call from her panic-stricken mother informing her there was a shooting at the school so she got in her car and sped at about 160km/h back to the primary school.
Right after Gomez parked her car, sheriffs approached her and said she had to move the vehicle.
Angeli Gomez attended the graduation ceremonies of her two children on the morning of May 24. Photo / CBS News
When Gomez refused, she was told they were going to have to arrest her for being "uncooperative". That was when Gomez proceeded to read them the riot act.
"And he said, well, we're going to have to arrest you because you're being very uncooperative," Gomez told CBS News.
"I said, 'Well, you're going to have to arrest me because I'm going in there. And I'm telling you right now, I don't see none of y'all in there. Y'all are standing with snipers and y'all are far away.' "
Gomez was then handcuffed by authorities to stop her from running inside the primary school.
But as soon as she was let loose, her mother's instinct kicked in and she jumped the fence and raced into the school to rescue her children.
"I jumped that first gate fence and once I jumped in, I went to my son's class and I knocked on the door. And I remember the teacher saying, 'I'm like, hey, they're already cutting the fence to get me'," Gomez recalled to CBS News.
"She's like, 'you think we have time to get out.' I said 'y'all have time, I'm going to run for my other son'."
Crosses bearing the names of the victims killed in last week's school shooting are seen through a balloon at a memorial at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Photo / AP
After finding out that her first child was fine, Gomez then tried to find her other child, only to encounter more officers who tried to stop her.
"And as I see that they're opening my son's door, I go run for my son and I get him," Gomez explained.
Footage of Gomez holding her two sons as they ran from the school was caught on camera.
The mom that ran in and saved her kids after being handcuffed in Uvalde finally spoke out. pic.twitter.com/wHNouRkCY7
— barbarism critic (luxury gay space communist arc) (@SxarletRed) June 3, 2022
Gomez said she still thinks about all those who lost their lives that day.
"The gunshots were still active. They were not in there. There was no one in there. If anything, when I pulled out, my car was closer to the school than that," Gomez recalled.
"They could have saved many more lives. They could have gone into that classroom and maybe two or three would have been gone. But they could have saved, the whole, more, the whole class.
"They could have done something, gone through the window, sniped him through the window, I mean something, but nothing was being done."
The mother was handcuffed outside of the primary school for being "uncooperative". Photo / CBS News
According to Gomez, authorities were very hostile to concerned parents waiting outside the school. She said they were more concerned about keeping parents back from the school than saving everyone inside it.
"I told one of the officers, 'I don't need you to protect me, get away from me, I don't need your protection. If anything I need you to go in there with me to go protect my kids'," Gomez said.
