Footage From Robb Elementary Massacre to Be Made Public This Week
Footage from the Robb Elementary massacre that left 19 students and two teachers dead will be released to the public this week. The chairman of the Texas House panel that’s currently investigating the shooting, Rep. Dustin Burrows, assured potential viewers that it “would contain no graphic images or depictions of violence,” according to the Daily Mail.
Instead, the video focuses on the response from the officers involved, who waited outside the classrooms for more than an hour before Border Patrol agents arrived on the scene and engaged shooter Salvador Ramos, 18, ultimately killing him on the scene.
Rep. Burrows continued, “I can tell people all day long what it is I saw, the committee can tell people all day long what we saw, but it’s very different to see it for yourself. And we think that’s important.”
The video, which captures each one of the excruciating 77 minutes, starts at the moment that Ramos crashed his truck near Robb Elementary. He’s then seen entering the building and walking down a hallway, firing his first shots and scaring a nearby child, who’s seen running away from Ramos and down another hallway.
Law enforcement arrived on the scene within three minutes of Ramos entering the building but hesitated when he began firing at the officers. Officers equipped with ballistic shields can be seen entering the hallway about 20 minutes later, while officers with rifles appear 10 minutes after that.
Before long, there were dozens of police standing in the hallway, none of them engaging the shooter as he fires rounds in classrooms 111 and 112. A screengrab from 12:04 p.m. — roughly 40 minutes into Ramos’ shooting spree — shows 19 officers equipped with ballistic shields and rifles. It would be another 45 minutes until Border Patrol agents arrived on the scene and engaged the shooter.
The footage also confirms that Ramos first entered the building at 11:33 a.m. but wasn’t gunned down until nearly 1 p.m.
Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin agrees with the Texas House Special Committee’s efforts to release the footage publicly. He hopes the video will “bring clarity to the public,” he said last Friday.
Uvalde schools police Chief Pete Arredondo, who is currently on administrative leave, maintains the assertion that he thought Ramos was barricaded in an empty classroom. However, those who have seen the footage say you can clearly hear Ramos shooting inside the classrooms, followed by screaming from both children and teachers.
Local authorities also received multiple 911 calls from children who were stuck in the classroom. Arredondo spent most of those 77 minutes demanding a key to the classroom, even though officers were equipped with a battering ram that was left outside, as well as nearly 20 officers with ballistic shields and rifles.
A damning report from Texas State University’s Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training claims that there were “missed opportunities to save lives.” Additionally, investigators are pointing to a moment before the shooting, at around 11:30 a.m., when an Uvalde officer saw Ramos approaching the building but neglected to take any action.
Protesters across Uvalde have demanded answers from local authorities. The New York Times reports that The Unheard Voices March and Rally made their way from Robb Elementary through the city of Uvalde, with signs that read “remember their names” as they chanted “save our kids.”
“We want accountability from all levels — local level, county level, state level, federal level,” said Tina Quintanilla-Taylor, a mother of a Robb Elementary student.
The Washington Examiner reports that in addition to McLaughlin, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has demanded that the footage be released to the public.
The footage from the Robb Elementary shooting may be released as early as this upcoming Sunday.
