Video From Uvalde School Hallway Shows Police Waiting

It's not clear when video might be released
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 12, 2022 2:16 AM CDT
Updated Jul 12, 2022 5:37 AM CDT
77-Minute Video From Uvalde School Hallway Shows Police Waiting
Investigators search for evidences outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, May 25, 2022, after an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 students and two teachers.   (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

The Austin American-Statesman has viewed a 77-minute surveillance video from the hallway of Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on the day a gunman massacred 19 students and two teachers, USA Today reports. The footage is not graphic, but offers what USA Today calls "an unabridged view of police inaction," including an hour of an increasing number of police officers and amount of shields and powerful weapons waiting in the hallway before entering the classroom. It helps to clarify the confusing timeline of the tragedy, and it clears up one point that "has become a matter of contention," per USA Today: the arrival of troopers from the Department of Public Safety on the scene.

The Uvalde mayor has accused the DPS director of casting local law enforcement as scapegoats even though DPS officers were also on the scene, and the video does confirm their presence. It also shows the 46 minutes during which officers, who already had multiple assault rifles and ballistic shields, waited for yet more shields and tear gas canisters to arrive while they discussed various options for entering the classroom. The next question is whether the video will be released to the general public: Hours after Rep. Dustin Burrows announced that DPS and the mayor had reached a deal to release it, DPS said it could not release it because the Uvalde DA has instructed it not to, ABC News reports. (More Uvalde mass shooting stories.)

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