Three days after a gunman carried out the deadliest mass shooting ever at a Texas school, a law enforcement official told the nation that “a teacher” had left a door propped open, allowing the assailant to enter Robb Elementary.
The gunman, Salvador Ramos, killed 19 students and two teachers over a period of 77 minutes before hundreds of law enforcement officials who had gathered at the scene decided to confront him.
As ABC News reports regarding the May 27 news conference:
“Col. Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, told dozens of reporters and millions of viewers watching live that a ‘teacher’ had propped the door open with a rock, allowing the shooter to enter the school through a door that was supposed to lock automatically.”
That “teacher” was Emilia “Amy” Marin and, as video evidence reveals, she had done no such thing. In fact, her actions on May 24 likely prevented more lives from being taken.
It took the Texas Department of Public Safety three days to correct its director’s statement. The department has been blasted as “dishonest” or “incompetent” by Marin’s lawyer.
Because of the accusation, members of the community blamed the Uvalde teacher for the deadly Robb Elementary school shooting.
As Marin told ABC News, the false accusation has caused her irreparable harm — along with the trauma of experiencing one of the deadliest school shootings in the U.S.
“I died that day,” Marin said in an interview that aired October 24.
“Right now, I’m lost. Sometimes I go into a dark place. And it’s hard when I’m there, but I tell myself, ‘you can’t let him win. You can’t let him win,'” Marin said, referring to the gunman. “I’m a fighter. I will be okay. I’m going to learn to live with this.”
She further revealed:
“I am suffering mentally, of course, emotionally,” she said. “I am suffering from post-traumatic arthritis, which is very painful. There are nights when everybody goes to bed and I just stay awake with the pain and my daughter tells me … ‘Mom, soak in the tub.’ And I tell her I can’t because I can’t get out.” …
“I sit there at night, replaying that day in my mind.” …
“And I see those victims’ faces. I pray for them every night. But what I go through, McCraw doesn’t know. Nobody knows. But it was very easy for him to point the finger at me. A few weeks ago, I told my counselor ‘It would have been better if he would have shot me, too.’ because the pain is unbearable. And when you have people who are higher up in ranks like McCraw, you would think that they know their job well. He has no idea what his words did.” …
“I will never be the person that I was before. I did die that day. I see the windows boarded up and the fence around the campus. I tell my counselor, ‘I’m in there. I’m still in there.'”
Read more of Marin’s interview with ABC News: ‘I am suffering mentally,’ Uvalde educator says after false blame in shooting aftermath: Exclusive and ‘They defamed her’: Uvalde educator falsely accused of leaving school door open seeks answers.
