New security footage released late Tuesday gives a more detailed look at the disastrous police response to the Robb Elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 children and two teachers were killed on May 24. At least one officer who responded to the shooting is seen using a hand sanitizer dispenser and looking at his phone while casually leaning against a wall before police attempted to stop the gunman.
In the video, exclusively obtained by the Austin American-Statesman, the teenage gunman is seen crashing his truck into a ditch next to the school. He fires three shots at two men who approached the crash, prompting the men to flee.
Meanwhile, a teacher at the school calls 911 to report the gunman. According to a recording of the call, she frantically tells dispatch that she “can’t see him.”
“The kids are running!” she yells as more gunfire and children screaming are heard in the background. “Oh my god. Get down! Get in your room! Get in your rooms!”
At 11:33 a.m., the gunman enters Robb Elementary. The video shows the gunman walking down the hall seconds before a child unknowingly turns the corner behind him.
Twenty-five seconds after entering the school, the gunman opens fire into a classroom. An editor’s note on the video states that “the sound of children screaming has been removed.”
A caption on the video then explains that the gunman fired his AR-15 inside two classrooms for two and a half minutes, and authorities say he fired more than 100 rounds.
At 11:36 a.m., at least nine police officers are seen inside the school. The officers run down the hallway toward the classrooms, but after more shots ring out, they retreat and take cover.
By 11:52, additional officers carrying ballistic shields are seen inside the school. At 12:09, 36 minutes after the gunman first entered the school, still, no rescue attempts have been made. At 12:21, the gunman is heard firing four more times.
The cops are then seen moving down the hallway once again, but they stop outside the classrooms and wait.
At 12:30, nearly one hour after the gunman entered the school, one of the officers is seen using a hand sanitizer dispenser. The same officer is later seen casually leaning against the wall on his phone. Still no rescue attempts have been made at the time.
At 12:50, the officers finally breach the classroom and kill the gunman.
In the bottom right corner of the footage, an officer is seen holding another officer back. According to Human Events senior editor Jack Posobiec, the officer being held back had a daughter who was killed inside the classroom during the shooting.
“Take another look at this photo. See how one officer is being held back? That’s the one [whose] 10 year old daughter was in the room. She was murdered,” he tweeted. “Across the hallway, there is a piece of absolute shlit leaning on the wall on his phone.”
During a city council meeting this week, Mayor Don McLaughlin slammed the media for releasing the footage.
“I want to go on the record. The way that video was released today was one of the most chicken things I’ve ever seen,” McLaughlin said.
“This video needed to be released, but the families should’ve gotten to see it first,” he said. “It was very unprofessional, which I think this investigation has been, in my opinion, since day one.”
The shooting took place more than seven weeks before the footage was released. Attendees at the city council meeting pushed back on the mayor’s comments.
“What about the cops, are they chicken sh-t?” a man asked.
“Rather than attacking the media, y’all should attack those cops,” another said.
