A Disturbing new video shows police officers responding to the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting running away from gunshots while nineteen children and two teachers were left to die in their classrooms. The new footage of the horrifying attack was published by the Austin-American Statesman on Tuesday.
The disturbing video shows how responding officers wasted time through aimless wandering and indecision in the hallway of Robb Elementary School instead of charging after 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos as he systematically slaughtered 21 people on May 24.
The 77-minute clip shows officers responding to the school just minutes after 18-year-old Ramos began his rampage. However, rather than confront him, the officers stopped and lingered — with one cop in a helmet and vest even seen using a wall-mounted hand sanitizer and checking his phone.
The officers are also captured fleeing down the hallway when Ramos fires in their direction, according to the footage taken from school security cameras.
It is not until 77 minutes into the recording that the responding officers finally breach the classroom where Ramos, who died in the attack, had gunned down the innocent kids and teachers.
At one point during the recording, more than 45 minutes after cops arrived on the scene, an officer in a helmet and vest is seen using a wall-mounted hand sanitizer dispenser. That same officer is also seen looking at his phone.
The video also shows the officers’ fruitless hunt for keys to the classroom — which turned out to not even have been locked.
The video was scheduled to be released by state lawmakers on Sunday, NYPOST reported. Officials had said they wanted to give grieving families the opportunity to view the video privately before its release.
Vincent Salazar, whose 11-year-old daughter Layla Salazar was killed in the shooting, told The Post that he had not seen the video before the Statesman published it and that families of the victims felt “blindsided.”
The Texas Department of Public Safety had walked him through what was in the video, but he said seeing it felt different.
“We all know that the [police] didn’t do their jobs, but seeing it will reaffirm that. There needs to be accountability. A lot of these people who didn’t act shouldn’t have their jobs,” Salazar said.
The Statesmen released an edited version of the footage that shows key moments of the day’s events. The paper also noted it edited out “the sound of children screaming.”
The video is likely to further fuel anger for the devastated parents, many of whom waited outside the school while Ramos was shooting and were barred from entering and trying to save their children.
A spokesperson for Texas House Representative Dustin Burrows, the chairman of the state committee investigating the shooting, told reporters on Tuesday, “At this point, we are holding true to our word to share it with families as part of our report.”
Salazar questioned why the newspaper chose to release it before families could see the video privately.
“I’m not sure their reason … why not wait? I guess that’s just how media works,” he said.
