Throughout the Uvalde shooting, an off-duty federal agent’s wife texted him for assist. “I requested my barber if he had a gun,” he stated.

Jacob Albarado was in his barber's chair when both males obtained text messages in regards to the capturing unfolding at Robb Elementary Faculty in Uvalde, Texas, final week. "There's an energetic shooter. Help. Love you," Albarado's spouse Trisha mentioned in three messages at 11:41 a.m.

She's a fourth grade trainer at the college, and their daughter is a student there.

"I requested my barber if he had a gun," Albarado, a U.S. Customs and Border Safety agent, instructed CBS News on Wednesday. He had attended an awards ceremony at the college earlier that morning and was off duty, together with his weapon at home.

The barber did have a gun. Albarado took it, a shotgun, and so they rushed to the chaotic scene. Cops have been already there, and Albarado began serving to.

"Children are coming out the home windows," he mentioned.

With folks fleeing to a funeral home across the road, Albarado said he wanted to get inside the varsity as fast as he could.

"I was appearing as a husband and a father," he said.

His spouse let him know she made it to the funeral home, but she advised him their daughter was locked in a faculty restroom.

"I did not know what restroom," Albarado said.

He eventually learned his daughter was in a restroom positioned inside her classroom. Albarado met up with two officers near the classroom.

"We have to get the children out of here," Albarado stated he instructed the officers. "… The shooter's over there. We have to get the children out. That is our time."

The officers began opening classroom doors, and Albarado mentioned he guided folks to security.

"First classroom, second classroom, third classroom, noticed my daughter," Albarado mentioned. "Reduction. Huge reduction."

He hugged and kissed her, and shortly she was heading to the school parking lot.

Whereas Border Patrol brokers have been on the crew that breached the classroom the place the gunman was holed up, Albarado wasn't in that group.

"I didn't have my gear, and so it would not have been a smart decision for me to get into the constructing," he mentioned. "I didn't have my vest. A shotgun's not a ok protection."

During a press convention last week, the pinnacle of the Texas Division of Public Safety stated the college district's police chief did not initially ship officers into the classroom the place the gunman was located as a result of he thought it was not an active-shooter state of affairs. The U.S. Justice Division is conducting a review of the police response.

For his part, Albarado said he wasn't ready to assess the response.

"I know my fellow officers," he stated, "and … to me, coronary heart of hearts, I imagine they have been doing the whole lot of their power they could do."

Alex Sundby is a senior editor for CBSNews.com