News / Society

Police waited over an hour before responding to Texas school shooting: Video

Wednesday, 13 July 2022 8:06 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 13 July 2022 8:28 AM ]

Police arrive to search hallways after Salvador Ramos entered Robb Elementary school to kill 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, May 24, 2022 in a still image from school surveillance video obtained by the Austin American-Statesman newspaper. (Via Reuters)

Surveillance video of the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, shows police and federal agents milling in hallways for more than an hour before storming a classroom where a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers in May.

The video, published by the Austin American-Statesman on Tuesday, shows parts of the nearly 80 minutes that pass between the moment when Salvador Ramos, 18, enters the Robb Elementary School with a semi-automatic rifle and the time US police officers shoot him to dead.

The four-minute video from May 24 shows two law enforcement officers approaching the classrooms minutes after the gunman does and then run back as the sounds of gunfire ring out in the hallway.

Other officers, some with shields and rifles, are seen massing the hallway. But it takes them more than an hour to finally storm the classrooms and exchange fire with the gunman.

The edited footage was published as Texas lawmakers investigating the mass shooting, the deadliest of its kind in two decades, are preparing to release their findings as well as body-camera and surveillance footage of the incident.

The footage is at the center of a debate among state and local officials amid public anger over an incomplete account about the slow police response to the worst school shooting in Texas history.

A report commissioned by the Texas Department of Public Safety found earlier this month that a Uvalde police officer could have confronted and stopped Ramos before he entered the school but hesitated while he waited for permission from a supervisor.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin and other local officials have called for the surveillance footage to be made public.

Following the release of the edited footage on Tuesday, some relatives of the victims took to social media to express outrage.

"PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT SHARE THE VIDEO!!'We need time to process this!!," Berlinda Arreola, grandmother of one of the victims, wrote on Facebook.

Gloria Cazares, whose daughter was killed in the shooting, also implored family and friends on Facebook to not to share the video. "This is the opposite of what the families wanted!!!!! If you are a true friend please do not share it, I don't want to see it in my feed nor do I want to be tagged on any of the news stations that are sharing it."

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