Photos: Here's One of the Border Patrol Agents Who Stopped Uvalde Shooter -- And the Injuries He Received
New images show one of the Border Patrol agents who took down the Uvalde, Texas, school attacker on Tuesday -- and the injuries he sustained in the chaos.
According to KSAT-TV in San Antonio, Texas, images of the unnamed agent were released to ABC News. The images show the head wound the agent reportedly sustained during the shootout, as well as a baseball cap with a hole in it.
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The agent is a member of BORTAC, an elite Border Patrol tactical unit. While it's known that BORTAC agents exchanged gunfire with 18-year-old Salvador Ramos before the shooter was killed, it's unknown which agent fired the fatal shot.
That said, national security professional Alex Plitsas may have put it perfectly when he tweeted the photos: "The word Hero is overused. Not in this case."
The word Hero is overused.
Not in this case. pic.twitter.com/5MRvxulJ03
— Alex Plitsas 🇺🇸 (@alexplitsas) May 27, 2022
The agent's hat was ripped by a bullet graze, according to the Washington Examiner:
— Alex Plitsas 🇺🇸 (@alexplitsas) May 27, 2022
The wound inflicted upon the agent required several staples to close.
WARNING: The following tweet contains graphic imagery that some readers will find offensive.
— Alex Plitsas 🇺🇸 (@alexplitsas) May 27, 2022
Just an inch in a different direction and this agent could have paid the ultimate price.
NBC News' Ken Dilanian first reported Friday that the BORTAC agents entered the classroom "on their own initiative" after getting frustrated by the slow response of local police.
New: Border Patrol tactical agents who breached the classroom and killed the shooter acted on their own initiative after mounting frustration, sources tell @JuliaEAinsley
— Ken Dilanian (@KenDilanianNBC) May 27, 2022
According to a National Review report, the agents became fed up with local law enforcement's insistence they remain outside. After waiting 30 minutes, they entered Robb Elementary School and breached the classroom.
By this point, even the Texas Department of Public Safety admitted that the lack of any move to engage shooter Salvador Ramos inside the school where he killed 19 students and two teachers "was the wrong decision."
On 40 minute delay in police engaging the suspect inside Robb Elementary School, officials say, "a decision was made that this was a barricaded subject...there was time to retrieve the keys."
"From the benefit of hindsight...it was the wrong decision." https://t.co/q812K5OQTv pic.twitter.com/59SMt32ElZ
— ABC News (@ABC) May 27, 2022
At a news conference Friday, DPS Col. Steve McGraw, who was not present during the Tuesday massacre, said the decision was made because the commander and the scene thought that since Ramos "was a barricaded subject ... there was time to retrieve the keys" to the classroom door where the gunman was.
Last week, we saw the best and the worst of law enforcement. We saw police officers who refused to enter Robb Elementary School while parents begged and pleaded with them to do their jobs. Amid that deadly pusillanimity, the BORTAC agents ignored orders and did what was needed.
Yes, as these photos demonstrate, they came close to dying. Tragically, that's part of the job -- one the officers outside evidently didn't take seriously enough.
[firefly_poll]
“The devastating injuries that many of those kids sustained, there’s no doubt some of those children bled to death while waiting for police to make entry,” said CNN law enforcement analyst and former Philadelphia police commissioner Charles Ramsey.
“There’s just no question in my mind that probably took place. There’s no way you can justify that.”
The Department of Justice is now reviewing the law enforcement response to the shooting. The probe is nascent, so we have no idea what it will eventually find.
One thing we can be reasonably certain of, however, is that these BORTAC agents will emerge from the investigation as heroes. God bless them.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
