AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Authorities in Uvalde, Texas, made public police body camera footage and documents on Tuesday, highlighting the tardy law enforcement response to one of the deadliest classroom shootings in the United States, which resulted in the deaths of 19 students and two teachers.
Law enforcement faced widespread criticism for delaying action against 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos for over an hour following the commencement of the shooting at Robb Elementary School in May 2022.
Various bodycam videos depict officers from multiple agencies inside the school hallway and loitering outside. Conversations among the officers mention ideas like tossing gas through the window or hunting for a key to the classroom door, though it remains ambiguous whether any of these strategies were executed or who was leading the operation.
Within minutes, parents making their way to a fence near the school and yell at officers them to do something.
A parent can be heard shouting, “Who’s class is he in?” Another voice demands: “Come on man, my daughter is in there.” A different parent, not visible in the footage, exclaims angrily, “Either you go in or I’m going in bro,” and moments later pleads, “My kids are in there, bro… please.”
The documents released on Tuesday represent the final portion of records that local authorities had withheld amid a protracted legal struggle over public access. Among those advocating for the release were family members of the victims.
In one of the videos, an officer present during the initial response is heard saying, “We can’t see him at all,” followed by, “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.”
Three months before the shooting, sheriff’s deputies went to the gunman’s home on consecutive nights because he was arguing with his mother over Wi-Fi and broken video game equipment after she turned off the internet, records show.
Adriana Reyes said her son never hit her but told deputies “she was scared of Salvador and wanted help,” a report said. Ramos’ grandmother picked him up one night, and deputies drove him there the next night.
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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Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio. Associated Press reporters Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Missouri; Ben Finley in Norfolk, Virginia; Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas; Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia; and Ed White in Detroit contributed.
