The newspaper The Austin American-Statesman released portions of surveillance camera video on Tuesday showing police officers standing back and waiting in the corridor of the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, while the fatal May 24 shooting was taking place.
The pictures show the shooter, later identified as Salvador Ramos, 18-year-old, walking unopposed down the hall with a semi-automatic rifle. Shots are heard when the shooter enters a classroom, and a minor is seen running across the corridor.
Officials – local, state and federal – can be seen heavily armed and wearing bulletproof vests, helmets and in some cases shields – run away at the first shots that seem directed at them.
Here’s the security cam footage from Uvalde. It doesn’t appear from this video that the police ever confront the shooter or even try to open the classroom doors. Infuriating. pic.twitter.com/wmOh4zAH9o
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) July 12, 2022
Next they can be seen walking back and forth down the aisle, some going out of frame and then reappearing.
Others point their guns at the classroom, talking, making calls on their mobile phones, sending texts or looking at blueprints. No one enters or tries to enter the classroom.
Even after hearing the last shots 45 minutes after the arrival of the police, they keep waiting.
When federal agents finally entered the room where Ramos was and they killed him one hour and 14 minutes had elapsed since the arrival of the officers. By then the shooter had killed 19 children and two teachers, and injured 17 others.
The Uvalde video is extremely upsetting – but this cop taking the time to put sanitizer on his hands as kids are being murdered 20 feet away really puts a bow on the nightmare. pic.twitter.com/5ZUHCzEFyT
— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) July 12, 2022
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The video was released by the newspaper while the Texas legislative committee investigating the shooting plans to show next Sunday the complete recording, of more than an hour, to the relatives of the victims and later to the general public.
“We will first meet with members of the community and give them an opportunity to view the hallway video and discuss our preliminary report. Shortly thereafter we will release both things to the public.” State Rep. Dustin Burrows, chairman of the investigative committee, said Tuesday on Twitter.
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Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.