UVALDE, Texas (AP) — Authorities say children repeatedly called 911 from inside a Texas elementary school where a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers, including a girl who told the dispatcher “Please send the police now.”

Steven McCraw, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said at a news conference Friday that teachers and students repeatedly called 911 during Tuesday’s attack at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.

He says police were at the scene for at least an hour before U.S. Border Patrol agents used a master key to open a locked classroom door.

He says the agents then killed the gunman, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, at about 12:50 p.m.

Director McCraw confirmed that Border Patrol agents, along with other law enforcement, were told to hold back from engaging the gunman.

The on-scene commander initially believed it was a barricaded subject situation, and “that not kids were at risk.” pic.twitter.com/MVJeYiGmos

— CBS News (@CBSNews) May 27, 2022

Texas Department of Public Safety Col. Steven McCraw on the decision to not immediately breach the classroom door: “From the benefit of hindsight, where I’m sitting now, of course, it was not the right decision. It was the wrong decision, period. There’s no excuse for that…” pic.twitter.com/AHnfrqCaDI

— CNN (@CNN) May 27, 2022