The Austin American-Statesman newspaper published portions of controversial surveillance video on Tuesday showing police officers standing back and waiting in the hallway of Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, as the fatal May 24 shooting unfolded. in which 19 children and two teachers died.
The footage, which summarizes a 77-minute sequence, shows the shooter, later identified as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, walking unopposed down the hallway with a semi-automatic rifle. The video includes a 911 call from a teacher who is heard yelling, “Get on the ground! Enter your classrooms! Get in your classrooms!” Gunshots are then heard as the shooter enters some classrooms, and a minor is seen running across the corridor.
Two officers approach the classrooms minutes after the gunman arrives, but he runs off amid the sound of gunfire. Officers – local, state and federal, heavily armed and wearing bulletproof vests, helmets and in some cases shields – can then be seen running away at the first shots that seem directed at them. They can then be seen walking back and forth down the hall, some leaving the frame and then reappearing.
Others point their guns at the classroom, talking, making calls on their mobile phones, sending messages or looking at blueprints. A man with a vest that can even read “sheriff” uses a hydroalcoholic gel dispenser. No one enters or tries to enter the classroom. Even after hearing the last shots 45 minutes after the police arrived, they are still waiting.
When federal agents finally entered the room where Ramos was and killed him, an hour and 14 minutes had passed since the arrival of the officers. By then the shooter had killed 19 children and two teachers, and injured 17 others.
The images fell like a jug of water on the residents of Uvalde and redoubled the calls in the small city in southern Texas to demand responsibilities and explanations about the police operation, which until now have been incomplete, and sometimes inaccurate, in the seven weeks after the shooting.
Hours after its publication, some residents who attended a City Council meeting told the AP agency that they had not dared to look at it. Jesús Rizo said officers who are paid taxpayer money to protect citizens should not have “sat there” while children were in danger. “They could have saved some lives. They could have held someone’s hand while they were dying,” he said. “The parents could have last seen them as they were dying.”
Others demanded consequences for the police and more information in an investigation marked by confusing statements that have had to be retracted at times. “Give these families some closure,” said Daniel Myers, a pastor in Uvalde and a family friend of one of the victims.
The video was released by the newspaper while the Texas legislative committee investigating the shooting plans to show the complete recording of more than an hour to the families of the victims and later to the general public next Sunday.
“We will first meet with members of the community and give them an opportunity to view the hallway video and discuss our preliminary report. We will release both to the public shortly thereafter,” state Rep. Dustin Burrows, chairman of the investigative committee, said on Twitter on Tuesday.
