Officials release more videos of hesitant police response to Uvalde school shooting
AUSTIN, TEXAS (AP) — Videos from the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that police originally failed to make public show officers scrambling to treat victims, parents running near the building and dozens of law enforcement agents standing outside Robb Elementary School.
The hours of new video made public Tuesday include body-camera footage similar to what officials had previously released. Taken together, the footage underlines the hesitant police response in the small South Texas city, where a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers inside a fourth-grade classroom in one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history.
Police have said the additional videos were discovered days after a large collection of audio and video recordings were released in August.
In one chaotic scene, officers can be seen doing chest compressions on one victim outside and others yelling for help. “No pulse! Slow compression,” says a first responder. Streaks of blood line a crowded hallway and pleas for help continue to ring out as victims are carried out.
A Uvalde officer was put on paid leave and subsequently resigned following the discovery of the additional videos in August. Sgt. Donald Page said that his body camera footage was missing after the initial release, which led to officials turning over the unreleased video to the district attorney’s office. The department announced an internal investigation soon after, but it remains unclear how the newly released footage was discovered.
The release of the material by city officials over the summer followed a prolonged legal fight with The Associated Press and other news organizations.
The delayed law enforcement response to the May 24, 2022, shooting has been widely condemned as a massive failure: Nearly 400 officers waited more than 70 minutes before confronting the gunman in a classroom filled with dead and wounded children and teachers in the South Texas city of about 15,000 people, 80 miles (130 kilometers) west of San Antonio.
While terrified students and teachers called 911 from inside classrooms, dozens of officers stood in the hallway trying to figure out what to do. Desperate parents who had gathered outside the building pleaded with them to go in.
Previously released audio recordings contained 911 calls from terrified instructors and students as gunshots rang out amid pleas for help.
Federal investigations into law enforcement’s response attributed breakdowns in communication and inadequate training for their failure to confront the gunman, with some even questioning whether officers prioritized their own lives over those of children and teachers.
Two of the responding officers face multiple criminal charges of abandonment and endangerment. Former Uvalde school Police Chief Pete Arredondo and former school officer Adrian Gonzales have pleaded not guilty. Arredondo, who made his first court appearance last month, has stated he thinks he’s been scapegoated for the heavily scrutinized police response.
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Associated Press reporters Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia, Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas, and Ken Miller in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.
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Lathan is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.