Horrifying newly released video footage from the Uvalde mass shooting shows local police squirting hand sanitizer from a dispenser, giving each other fist-bumps, checking their phones, and restraining the one officer who wanted to actually stop the shooting.
All this is seen in a 77-minute-long surveillance video released Tuesday by the Austin American-Statesman.
The video “shows in excruciating detail dozens of sworn officers, local, state and federal — heavily armed, clad in body armor, with helmets, some with protective shields — walking back and forth in the hallway, some leaving the camera frame and then reappearing, others training their weapons toward the classroom, talking, making cellphone calls, sending texts and looking at floor plans, but not entering or attempting to enter the classrooms.”
Watch a condensed version of the video below:
The footage begins with shooter Salvador Ramos arriving at the school and casually strolling inside without facing any resistance.
He proceeds to walk to a classroom, at which point he opens fire. Minutes later, officers arrive and rush toward the classroom. Ramos fires at the officers, prompting them to immediately retreat back down the hallway.
The officers then mill around for 45 minutes until Ramos fires more shots.
“At 12:21 p.m., 45 minutes after police first arrived on the scene, four shots are heard and at least a dozen officers move toward the classroom. An officer can be heard saying, ‘They’re making entry.’Â Yet they do not,” according to the American-Statesman.
Nine minutes later, an officer is seen squirting hand sanitizer from a wall dispenser mounted right in front of Sheriff’s Deputy Felix Rubio, whose own daughter was in the classroom and ultimately wound up dying in the mass shooting.
“Other armed officers walk back and forth, and discuss the classroom doors and windows. The hunt for the keys continues. One officer eventually brings a sledgehammer. The audio from the surveillance camera at times is garbled, but it is loud in the crowded hallway,” the American-Statesman reported.
“At 12:41, a man wearing blue rubber gloves and a black shirt, khaki pants and a black baseball cap, with a stethoscope around his neck, arrives and speaks to officers. Other paramedics arrive with supplies. Two officers in camouflage fist-bump each other.”
Another nine minutes later, a burst of gunfire is heard as a group of officers crouch outside the classroom. It’s believed this is the moment that a Border Patrol agent finally breached the classroom and killed Ramos.
Meanwhile, Rubio could be seen being held back by his shirt:
Twenty-one innocent people, including 19 children, wound up dying between the time the shooting began and the Border Patrol agent finally eliminated the threat.
The fact that local officers were seen casually milling around for such a lengthy period of time as the shooting continued has sparked bipartisan fury from the public.
Here’s just a small sample of the growing anger:
Cops in Uvalde checked their phones and got hand sanitizer while children were massacred.
My God. pic.twitter.com/E8K6UJhqs0
— Nina Turner (@ninaturner) July 12, 2022
Two officers fist-bumped each other and another stopped to get hand sanitizer while 19 children and two teachers begged for help and bled to death for over an hour. That’s an actual thing I just watched unfold.
— Jamie Landers (@jamielandersx) July 12, 2022
Keep in mind one of the teachers made it to the ambulance alive and three of the children died in the hospital. They held on for that long — and THIS is what was happening on the other side of the door. I am devastated for their families.
— Jamie Landers (@jamielandersx) July 12, 2022
That Uvalde cop sanitizing his hands while children lay dying…there are no words for this
— Jack Posobic 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) July 12, 2022
But for some inexplicable reason, the Uvalde City Council doesn’t seem to share this anger.
During a council meeting late Tuesday, Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin went off on the media — not the police — for daring to release this footage, calling them “chicken” and “unprofessional.”
Council member Ernest King added, “The mayor said it was chicken. It was chicken sh-t. The way you did it.”
Watch:
“Rather than attacking the media, y’all should attack those cops.”
Uvalde residents react after the mayor and a city council member called journalists “chickenshit” for releasing security camera footage from Robb Elementary. (h/t @ahylton26) pic.twitter.com/rJh80fseYI
— Mike Hixenbaugh (@Mike_Hixenbaugh) July 12, 2022
The mayor of Uvalde says he can’t comment on whether the police acted properly because “I haven’t seen the video yet” and then proceeds to praise the courage of one of the officers based on … what he saw in the video 🤔
— Mike Hixenbaugh (@Mike_Hixenbaugh) July 12, 2022
They based their criticism on the claim that the families of the victims should have been shown the video first.
But according to Antonia Hylton of NBC News, the city has had “7 weeks” to show the families the video themselves.
I should note that it’s been about 7 weeks since a gunman killed 19 kids and 2 teachers. The authorities could’ve released this video or showed it to the families sooner.
— Antonia Hylton (@ahylton26) July 12, 2022
Watch the full surveillance video below:
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