Texas media outlets have released surveillance footage from the Uvalde shooting on May 24 in advance of the video’s planned release on Sunday.
The Austin American-Statesman and its television partner KVUE first released trimmed and edited excerpts of the video, which features exterior shots of Robb Elementary School, footage from the hallway capturing the moment the 18-year-old gunman entered the school, and a portion of the police response.
However, the media outlets later released the complete footage.
“Both media outlets have elected to release that footage Tuesday to provide transparency to the community, showing what happened as officials waited to enter that classroom,” the KVUE story notes on its website.
During the shooting, 19 pupils and two teachers perished. The shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, which claimed 17 lives, is now Texas’ deadliest school shooting and the second deadliest in American history.
In the footage, the shooter can be seen walking inside the elementary school while sporting what appears to be all-black attire, a backpack, and a semi-automatic rifle.
Shortly after entering, the shooter made a right turn in one of the halls and began firing in at least one classroom.
The student may be seen in the video approaching the same hallway just before the opening shots are fired.
The child, whose name and face were obscured by the media, may be seen pausing for a brief period before turning and fleeing.
At least seven police officers arrived at the school minutes after the shooter did. Some of them can be seen fleeing toward the classrooms in the footage.
Officers, however, retreated in the direction of the door after the shooter fired his weapon.
Officers inside Robb Elementary reportedly waited more than an hour after the shooting started before entering the classroom, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. Despite the shooter firing further shots during that time, that may be seen in the footage.
Police officers may be seen wandering in the hallway and conversing on their phones as others are waiting. They were well-armed, and several of them had body armor on.
Police Chief Pete Arredondo of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District was the scene’s commanding officer, according to DPS, and he was in charge of blocking officers from entering the classroom.
Despite Arredondo’s assertion that the door to the classroom was locked, DPS asserted that it was never locked and that no officer in the corridor even attempted to open it.
Steven McCraw, director of the DPS, referred to the police reaction as “an appalling failure.”
State Rep. Dustin Burrows, a Republican from Lubbock, stated earlier on Tuesday that the public would first receive access to the complete video on Sunday before family members. The Texas House committee looking into the shooting is chaired by Burrows.
However, Burrows noted in a tweet that “although I am delighted that a tiny bit is now available for the public, I do believe watching the complete section of law enforcement’s response, or lack thereof, is also vital” after parts of the footage were made public.
His choice is obviously in opposition to the directives given to the Texas Department of Public Safety by Uvalde District Attorney Christina Busbee.
Busbee had resisted the agency’s decision to make the tape public.
The victims’ relatives have been pleading with local and state leaders for transparency ever since the shooting.
No official police report has been released to the public as of yet.
