The latest video revealed by authorities showed that the police waited for more than an hour before breaching the classroom during the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
The mass shooting on May 4 at an elementary school in Uvalde shocked the nation. The attack by an 18-year-old local, identified as Salvador Ramos, killed 21 people, including small children.
Steve McCraw, who is Texas’ public safety chief, has described the police response to the horrific attack as an “abject failure”. He further said that officers wasted vital time looking for a classroom key that was “never needed.”
In the surveillance camera video, which is obtained by the Austin American-Statesman newspaper, the gunman can be seen crashing his truck outside the Robb Elementary School. He then entered the building at 11:33am (local time). He can be seen armed with a semi-automatic rifle.
In the video, a young boy spots the gunman as he walks down an empty hallway. The boy rushes away when the gunman opens fire into a classroom.
The camera catches the gunman shooting dozens of rounds from the doorway before going inside. He steps out briefly into the view of the camera, reenters the classroom and is not seen again.
What the police were doing?
At the school, there were several police officers armed with handguns. The video shows they arrived in the school hallway within three minutes of the first shots being fired.
The video clearly shows that they go down the hallway where the shooting is taking place but retreat when the gunman opens fire.
For the next hour, the police are seen huddling at the end of the hallway while reinforcements arrive. Even those officers, who were armed with semi-automatic weapons and ballistic shields, waited.
Watch the video here:
Watch as men in uniform RETREAT as children + teachers were HELPLESSLY being massacred in their classroom. Knowing that these same men handcuffed parents who tried to protect + save their children. Every single person in uniform present that day should resign in disgrace.#Uvalde pic.twitter.com/tNMQTOLW1D
— TexasLindsay™ (@TexasLindsay) July 12, 2022
A quick timeline of events
At 12:21pm (local time), 45 minutes after the arrival of the first officers on the scene, shots could be heard from where the gunman was.
The officers eventually stormed the classroom at 12:50pm (local time) and killed the gunman — one hour and 14 minutes after their arrival.
The video does not show any children being shot and the Austin American-Statesman said it had removed audio of their screams.
(With inputs from agencies)
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