A quick-thinking, off-duty, Border Patrol officer, armed with his barber's shotgun, helped rescue dozens of children and his daughter during the nightmarish shooting at the Uvalde, Texas, elementary school.
The New York Times reported that Jacob Albarado was getting his hair cut when his wife Trisha, who teaches fourth grade at Robb Elementary, sent him an urgent text message.
"There's an active shooter," she wrote. "Help." And she added: "I love you."
As he got ready to run out, his barber loaned him a shotgun. Albarado then sped off to the school.
Once there, he was told a tactical unit was forming to enter the section of the school where the shooter was. Albarado came up with a plan with other officers to evacuate as many children as they could.
The Times said he led other law enforcement officers toward the wing where his daughter's classroom was.
"I'm looking for my daughter, but I also know what wing she's in," he said, "so I start clearing all the classes in her wing."
His wife and her students were hiding under desks and behind curtains. Their daughter, Jayda, who is in the second grade, was locked in a bathroom.
Two officers provided cover with their guns drawn, he said. Two others guided dozens of screaming kids and their teachers out on the sidewalk.
"They were just all hysterical, of course," Albarado said.
He hugged his daughter when he finally saw her, but then went back to making sure the other children were safe.
"I did what I was trained to do," Albarado said.
Meanwhile, the White House is declining to weigh in on reports that police were slow to respond to the school shooting — perhaps even keeping some parents from running into the building to protect their children.
The White House supports a thorough review of the police response, which reportedly kept the gunman in a classroom for around 40 minutes before he was fatally shot by U.S. Border Patrol special forces.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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