Uvalde school shooting surveillance video fuels scrutiny over a delayed law enforcement response

The video, which was published by the Austin American-Statesman newspaper on Tuesday, shows responding officers approaching the door of the classroom within minutes of the shooter entering yet retreating after the gunman opened fire at them. After more than an hour — with the hallway growing more crowded with officers from different agencies — the doorway of the classroom was breached by law enforcement and the gunman was shot and killed.

Local officials and families of the victims decried the decision to release the footage before those impacted were able to see it for themselves. And the video, which was lightly edited by the American-Statesman to blur at least one child’s identity and to remove the sound of children screaming, still leaves questions outstanding — in particular, why the law enforcement response was so delayed.

“This doesn’t give us any answers as to who, if anybody, was in charge,” state Senator Roland Gutierrez told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Tuesday. “Even if we see 77 minutes in a hallway, it’s not going to tell us who was in charge or who should have been in charge. And I think that’s the sad statement of what happened on May 24th is that no one was in charge.”

Gutierrez criticized the Texas Department of Public Safety for having a multitude of officers on site yet not taking control of the situation. The state agency has consistently pointed to Pedro “Pete” Arredondo, the Uvalde school district police chief, as the on-scene commander during the attack.

“There’s no reason for the families to see that,” Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin said of the leak. “I mean, they were going to see the video, but they didn’t need to see the gunman coming in and hear the gunshots. They don’t need to re-live that, they’ve been through enough,” he said.

Officials harshly criticize video’s early release

“While I am glad that a small portion is now available for the public, I do believe watching the entire segment of law enforcement’s response, or lack thereof, is also important,” the chairman of the state House Investigative Committee, state Rep. Dustin Burrows (R) tweeted.

“I am also disappointed the victim’s families and the Uvalde community’s requests to watch the video first, and not have certain images and audio of the violence, were not achieved,” he wrote.

In the first edited video, which is a little over 4 minutes long, audio captures frantic teachers screaming as the gunman crosses the parking lot after crashing his truck just outside Robb Elementary School’s campus.

He then enters the school at 11:33 a.m., turns down a hallway carrying a semi-automatic rifle, walks into a classroom and opens fire. As the shots ring out, a student who had been peeking around the hallway corner at the gunman quickly turns and runs away.

Minutes later, officers rush into the hallway and approach the door, but immediately retreat to the end of the hall when the shooter appears to open fire at them at 11:37 a.m. Law enforcement continues to arrive in the crowded hallway but do not approach the door again until 12:21 p.m. and wait until 12:50 p.m. to breach the classroom and kill the gunman.

A second edited video lasting almost an hour-and-a-half was also published on the newspaper’s YouTube channel.
In the footage, the sound of children screaming has been edited out, but the stark sounds of gunfire are still clearly audible and the gunman’s face is briefly shown as he comes through the school doors.

McLaughlin also shared his disappointment that a person close to the investigation would leak the video.

“That was the most chicken way to put this video out today — whether it was released by the DPS or whoever it was. In my opinion, it was very unprofessional, which this investigation has been, in my opinion, since day one,” he said during a city council meeting Tuesday.

What will happen next

The report will show that there was not one individual failure on May 24, but instead a group failure of great proportions, the source said. Members of the committee also asked the director of Texas DPS, Col. Steve McCraw, to testify a second time on Monday to get further clarification on earlier sworn testimony before the Texas House and Senate, according to the source.

“If you are a true friend please do not share it, I don’t want to see it in my feed nor do I want to be tagged on any of the news stations that are sharing it. Our hearts are shattered all over again!,” Cazares wrote.

The Uvalde School district has scheduled a meeting on July 18 where Mayor McLaughlin said he hopes the city council and victims’ families will be able to get details about the return to school.