County leaders in Uvalde, Texas, released police body camera video and documents on Tuesday detailing the law enforcement response during one of the deadliest classroom attacks in U.S. history that left 19 students and two teachers dead.
Authorities were roundly criticized for their slow response during the May 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School and for failing to confront 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos for more than an hour.
In one video released Tuesday, an officer involved in the initial response can be heard saying, “We can’t see him at all” before adding, “We were at the front and he started shooting.”
The officer wearing the body cam asks: “He’s in a classroom right?” Another officer responds: “With kids.”
The records released Tuesday are the final batch of documents that local authorities withheld during a yearslong legal battle over public access. Family members of the victims were among those pushing for the the records to be released.
Media organizations, including The Associated Press, sued the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District and Uvalde County in 2022 for the release of their records. A Texas appeals court in July upheld a lower court’s ruling that the records must be made public.
Last year, city officials in Uvalde released body camera footage and recordings of 911 calls.
Documents released by the school district on Monday detailed the gunman’s downward spiral beginning in middle school, including his dropping out of school just months before the massacre.
Nearly 400 officers waited more than 70 minutes before confronting the gunman in a classroom filled with dead and wounded children and teachers. Federal and state investigations later looked into law enforcement training, communication, leadership and technology, and questioned whether officers prioritized their own lives over those of children and teachers.
Uvalde schools police chief Pete Arredondo and Adrian Gonzales, another former school district officer, are the only two officers who face criminal charges for their actions that day. They both have pleaded not guilty to child endangerment and abandonment and are scheduled for trial later this year.
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