The Austin American-Statesman and ABC affiliate KVUE have obtained surveillance footage of the Uvalde shooting and released it to the public, per their reports. The footage only intensified the belief that the officers were delayed in their response but also enraged the families who hadn’t gotten a chance to view the videos for themselves, according to ABC News.
“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,” wrote KVUE before the breakdown of the footage contents.
Details from the surveillance footage from KVUE:
Initially, the video shows a truck crashing outside Robb Elementary School on May 24, and the 18-year-old gunman walking to the school building. The video then shows the gunman entering the school and walking down the hallway to a classroom, carrying a long gun.
Five seconds after the gunman turns the corner, the video shows a young boy come into the frame. The boy witnesses the first gunshots in the school before running away, presumably unharmed. The shooter did not appear to see the boy, based on the video.
The video then shows the gunman start shooting toward the classroom before walking in. Between gunfire, screams can be heard from the teachers and students inside the classroom.
The video shows the first armed law enforcement officers arrive in the school hallway three minutes after the gunman. The officers are seen running toward the classroom, but they take fire and end up back at the end of the hallway.
In the video, 13 rifles can be seen arriving in the hallway in the first 30 minutes of the incident. The first shield arrives in under 20 minutes. Dozens of law enforcement officers can be seen in the hallway, along with equipment.
No officers make entry into the classroom for more than 70 minutes.
Rep. Dustin Burrows had previously vowed to release the footage to the public for the sake of transparency. According to ABC News, the local district attorney advised the footage to stay private. Per CNN, a few parents of some of the victims said they felt blindsided as they expected to view the footage privately with the Texas House Committee.
“Who do you think you are to release footage like that of our children who can’t even speak for themselves, but you want to go ahead and air their final moments to the entire world? What makes you think that’s OK?,” said Angel Garza, whose 10-year-old daughter, Amerie Jo, was killed, via CNN.
In a press conference, other family members of the victims said the sound of gunfire from the video was triggering and urged others not to circulate the footage. On the other hand, officials and experts reacted to the footage in awe of the officers’ disappointing response. Texas Department of Public Safety director Col. Steven McCraw called it an “abject failure,” via CNN. Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe called it a “total mess.”
“The Texas state active shooter response for school-based officers’ training, that every one of these officers has to have had by this point in time, makes it clear that you take everybody that you have when you arrive on that scene and you go downrange to address the threat. That is not what they did,” McCabe told CNN.