CCTV has captured the moment SWAT teams wait in the corridorof a Texas school - with one using hand sanitiser - as a gunman massacres children and teachers leaving 21 dead.
The newly released footage from a hallway camera shows the gunman Salvador Ramos entering Robb Elementary school holding an AR-15 style rifle and includes 911 tape of a teacher screaming, “Get down! Get in your rooms! Get in your rooms!”
Two officers approach the classrooms minutes after the gunman enters, then run back amid the sounds of gunfire.
As the gunman first approaches the classrooms a child whose image is blurred can be seen poking their head around a corner down the hallway and then running back while shots ring out.
Later, about 20 minutes before police breach the room, the video shows a man wearing a vest that says “sheriff” using a hand sanitizer dispenser mounted on the wall.
Resident Jesus Rizo told an Uvalde City Council meeting that officers who are paid taxpayer dollars to protect people should not have “sat there” when children were in danger.
“You could’ve saved some lives. You could have held somebody’s hand as they were dying,” he said. “The parents could have seen them one last time as they were dying.”
Chief Pete Arredondo has been portrayed as the on-scene commander with many claiming his errors delayed police killing the gunman.
Mr Arredondo, however, has told the Texas Tribune he didn’t consider himself to be in charge of 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.
The deaths have devastated the community and there have been calls for the school to be closed down and destroyed.
Confirming the school’s demolition, mayor of Uvalde, Don McLaughlin said: “You can never ask a child to go back or teacher to go back in that school, ever.”
