A teacher killed in the Texas school shooting desperately phoned her police officer husband for help but he was prevented from going into the building by colleagues.
Police chiefs have been criticised over why they took so long to kill gunman Salvador Ramos at Robb Elementary School, with officers trained to confront an active shooter rather than hold back.
Yet the gunman entered the school at 11.33am last Tuesday and he was not killed until 12.51pm, according to a timeline from the head of state police Steven McCraw.
During this time children were calling the police to say there was a gunman in the school and yet officers remained outside the classroom apparently believing Ramos had barricaded himself in and there was no risk to more life.
The attack saw 19 children and two teachers died in one of the worst school shootings in the history of the United States.
One of the teachers, Eva Mireles, had been speaking to her husband Ruben Riaz, who was a school district police officer, shortly before she was killed.
Uvalde County Judge Bill Mitchell said: “She’s in the classroom and he’s outside. It’s terrifying.”
Ms Mireles, who had been working at the school for 17 years, was killed trying to protect pupils, said her aunt Lydia Martinez Delgado.
Her husband Officer Riaz had rushed to the scene but while he wanted to go inside, other police prevented him.
“He could not go into the classroom where all the shooting victims were at,” said Ms Martinez Delgado, reported the New York Times.
Judge Mitchell said it was not clear how long the couple was able to speak but that deputy sheriffs had confirmed that it took place.
“I don’t know what was said,” he explained but said it would be a situation like “he’s outside hearing his wife: ‘I’m dying’.”
Mr Mitchell said he did not know if Mr Ruiz told the chief of his six-member department, Pete Arredondo, about the call.
State police have said it was Chief Arredondo’s decision to wait to send officers into the classrooms, which has since been branded "wrong".
The gunman's motive is still unclear.
Ramos lived with his grandmother Celia Martinez Gonzales, 66, who used to be an employee at the school.
Ramos shot his grandmother in the face before fleeing the home and cashing her pickup truck into a ditch near the school.
Mr Mitchell said: "This is the single most devastating, disastrous event that ever has happened in Uvalde County."
