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Uvalde police body camera video highlights chaos, confusion and delays
Police body camera video from the deadly Uvalde school shooting shines fresh light on the the chaos and delays before officers moved in on the gunman.
Local
Dramatic police body camera video from the Uvalde school shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers in May shows multiple officers expressing confusion and doubt over the delay in moving in on the shooter.
“People are gonna ask why we’re taking so long,” an off-camera officer can be heard saying at one point, roughly an hour after officers first entered the Robb Elementary School on May 24.
But despite a clear sense of urgency, in the end, it would take law enforcement more than hour to take down the gunman in a police response that has been heavily criticized.
A scathing preliminary report by the Texas House committee investigating the mass shooting released Sunday found “systemic failure and egregiously poor decision making” by law enforcement and the school district.
Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin also announced on Sunday that Uvalde’s acting chief of police, Lt. Mariano Pargas, has been placed on leave as a city launched an investigation of his response, as well as that of his officers.
In the string of body camera videos released by the Uvalde Police Department, officers can be seen smashing windows and helping children escape the deadly attack.
In one video captured early on in the police response to the massacre at Robb Elementary School on May 24, shots can be heard ringing out inside the school.
“Am I bleeding?” the officer whose body camera captured the footage can be heard saying, with the video later showing blood on his hand and the officer saying he was bleeding from his ear.
After briefly exiting the school, he can then be heard telling arriving officers: “We got to get in there.”
“Guy’s inside the classroom right now,” he says of the shooter, Salvador Ramos, 18.
In another video released by the Uvalde Police Department Sunday, an officer can be heard asking “what are we doing here?” around 20 minutes after appearing to arrive at the school.