A new wave of anger swept Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday over surveillance video of police officers in bulletproof vests milling about in the hallway of Robb Elementary School as a gunman massacred a fourth-grade classroom where 19 children and two teachers killed.
The video, published Tuesday by the Austin American-Statesman, is a disturbing 80-minute recording of what has been known for weeks about one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history: that heavily armed police officers, some armed with rifles and body armor shields piled up in the hallway and waited for over an hour before going inside and stopping the May 24 killings.
But the footage, which hadn’t surfaced publicly until now, has once again haunted Uvalde residents and redoubled calls in the small South Texas town for accountability and explanations that have been incomplete — and sometimes inaccurate — in the seven weeks since the shooting. Hours after the video was posted, some residents at a Uvalde City Council meeting said they couldn’t bring themselves to watch it.
Jesus Rizzo said officers who are paid taxpayer dollars to protect people should not be “sitting there” when children are in danger.
WATCH | Excerpts from video obtained by the Austin American-Statesman:
Video shows the police response during a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas
Edited video and audio of a hallway at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, released by the Texas-based Austin American-Statesman, shows the gunman entering the school. It also shows how the police later arrive but remain in the hallway both during and after the shooting. WARNING: This video is disturbing and contains the sound of a gunshot.
“You could have saved some lives. You could hold someone’s hand while they were dying,” he said. “Parents could see them for the last time as they were dying.”
Others demanded consequences for police and more information in an investigation marked by confusing statements that at times had to be retracted.
Parents want answers
“Give these families some closure,” said Daniel Meyers, a pastor in Uvalde and a family friend of one of the victims.
An investigative panel led by Texas lawmakers earlier announced plans to show the video to Uvalde residents for the first time Sunday, in addition to sharing its findings after weeks of closed-door testimony from more than 40 witnesses.
In this image from school surveillance video, the gunman can be seen walking into Robb Elementary School holding a rifle before killing 19 children and two teachers. (Austin American Statesman/Reuters)
“This was the most unprofessional investigation or handling of it that I’ve ever seen in my life,” Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin said in an interview with The Associated Press. “These families are constantly fooling themselves.”
Footage from a school hallway camera shows the gunman entering the building with an AR-15-style rifle and includes a 911 recording of a teacher yelling, “Get down! Enter your rooms! Go to your rooms!”
Two police officers approach the classrooms minutes after the gunman entered, then run back amid the sounds of gunfire.
As the shooter first approaches the classrooms, a child whose image is blurred can be seen poking his head around the corner down the hall and then running back as gunshots ring out. Later, about 20 minutes before police burst into the room, the video shows a man wearing a “sheriff” vest using a wall-mounted hand sanitizer dispenser.
During the video, the screams of children have been edited out.
Police build up before entering the classroom where the shooter was located. (Austin American-Statesman/Reuters)
Officials said the 77 minutes of footage they are preparing to release this weekend does not contain images of children in the classroom. Dustin Burrows, a Republican who led the investigation, said after the Statesman released the video that “looking at the whole segment of the law enforcement response, or lack thereof, is also important.”
Questions continue to arise about the law enforcement response
But the video alone doesn’t answer all the questions that remain — nearly two months later — about law enforcement’s response. Among them is how School Police Chief Pete Arredondo spearheaded a massive law enforcement response involving multiple local, state and federal agencies.
State officials named Arredondo a crime scene commander and said his mistakes delayed police from killing the shooter. However, Arredondo told the Texas Tribune that he did not believe he was responsible for the operations and that he assumed someone else had taken control of the law enforcement response. He did not have a police radio at the time of the shooting.
Stephanie and Michael Chavez of San Antonio pay their respects at a makeshift memorial outside Robb Elementary School on May 25. (Nuri Valbona/Reuters)
The roles of senior officers on the ground from other agencies — including the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) — remain unclear. McLaughlin accused DPS of minimizing its involvement in the response and publishing inaccurate timelines.
Last week, a critique of the police response written by tactical experts and requested by DPS alleged that a Uvalde police officer had a chance to open fire on the shooter before he entered the school. McLaughlin said that account is inaccurate.
“All they keep doing is piling missing facts on top of missing facts and throwing them out there to see what’s left,” McLaughlin said.
In a statement, DPS Director Steve McCraw said the video provided “horrifying evidence” that the law enforcement response was a failure.
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