By Suzie Ziegler
UVALDE, Texas — An off-duty Border Patrol agent who rushed to Robb Elementary School is speaking publicly for the first time about his experiences on May 24 when a gunman shot and killed 19 students and two teachers.
According to FOX 5, Jacob Albarado was getting a haircut when he received a text from his wife, Trisha: “There’s an active shooter … Help … I love you.”
Albarado turned to his barber, asked to borrow a rifle and sprinted to the school in Uvalde, Texas. Albarado helped clear classrooms and evacuate students while searching for his wife, a teacher at the school, and his daughter, a student. Both his wife and daughter survived, the report said.
On Wednesday, Albarado detailed the frightening scene in a series of interviews with national news outlets, including FOX News and CBS.
“I just announced who I was and made my way toward my wife’s room,” Albarado told FOX’s Laura Ingraham. “I just saw a whole bunch of kids running out, running off campus, jumping through the windows, cops breaking windows.”
[MORE: Timeline: Uvalde school shooting, minute by minute]
Albarado said police already knew who he was, with Uvalde being a small town, and allowed him to help.
“It was chaos,” Albarado told CBS News. “I was acting as a husband and father. I was trying to get in there to save my wife and daughter.”
After clearing multiple classrooms, Albarado finally found his daughter.
“First classroom, second classroom, third classroom, saw my daughter,” Albarado said. “Relief. Big relief.”
Albarado clarified that he was not part of the group of Border Patrol agents who killed the gunman.