The tragic moment a small boy flees as cries can be heard ringing out can be seen in footage of the Uvalde police response to a school shooting that left 19 students and two instructors dead.
The footage showing how police stood by for 77 minutes as 18-year-old school shooter Salvador Ramos stalked across the parking lot at Robb Elementary School and broke into the building holding a rifle has been made public, according to state and municipal officials, who made the announcement on Monday.
The video has not yet been made available to the general public, but according to KVUE, it starts with Ramos entering the facility with an AR-15 on May 25 after crashing his truck in a ditch outside the school.
The TV channel adds that he was then observed making his way down the school’s hallway toward some classrooms. As he rounded a corner, a small child could be seen entering the picture.
The youngster runs away, seemingly unscathed, as Ramos fires his first rounds without seeming to see him.
After thereafter, Ramos can be seen firing toward a few of the classrooms before entering rooms 111 and 112.
According to KVUE, screaming coming from the teachers and pupils in the classrooms can be heard in between bursts of gunfire.
According to KVUE, the first law enforcement officers arrive on the site barely three minutes after Ramos entered the building and can be seen sprinting in the direction of the classrooms before turning back when they begin to get hit.
Officers with weapons could be seen approaching the area after roughly 30 minutes, while the first officers using ballistic shields arrived in under 20 minutes.
Ramos continued to shoot as scores of police officers, including 13 wielding long rifles, could be seen standing in the hallway, according to KVUE.
For more than an hour, none of the cops went inside the classroom.
According to ABC News, Rep. Dustin Burrows, the head of the Texas House commission looking into the shooting, promised that the footage “would not contain any graphic imagery or portrayals of violence” before it was made public.
He remarked, “I can tell people what I saw all day long, and the committee can tell people what we saw all day long, but it’s completely different to see it for yourself.” And we believe that’s significant.
Although the video is anticipated to be made public on Monday, he did not specify when it would be made available but stated that he is committed to continuing “to put pressure on the issue and consider all alternatives in making sure the video goes out for the public to view.”
Officials earlier acknowledged that the situation might have been resolved in only three minutes when photos from inside the school’s CCTV camera revealed fully armed police officers aiming their guns down the hallway while wearing ballistic shields.
The photo was taken on May 24 at 12:04 p.m., more than an hour after Ramos initially entered the structure and began firing and 46 minutes before Border Patrol agents entered the classroom and fatally shot him.
Police commander Pete Arredondo allegedly told the officers that the subject had locked himself inside and demanded a key before stopping the officers.
Police Chief Pete Arredondo is still on administrative leave, so the decision to disclose the additional video comes after a group of parents marched through the town on Sunday night to demand accountability.
Additional information is anticipated to be given at a hearing on Tuesday in Austin, along with additional pictures and videos.
On Friday, Mayor Don McLaughlin declared his support for the Texas House Special Committee’s plans to make the clips public.
In response to growing concerns over why Ramos wasn’t apprehended earlier in his rampage after the surveillance photographs were made public by the Austin-American Statesman last month, he said he hoped sharing the footage would ‘provide clarification to the public’
Ramos was shot and murdered by Border Patrol agents after they broke inside the building.
Parents and relatives of the 19 children and two teachers who were killed on May 24 are now seeking an explanation for why the 18-year-old gunman was allowed to carry out his shooting spree while the police officers remained outside the classrooms.
Ramos arrived to the school at 11:33 and wasn’t killed by gunfire until 12:50.
According to Pete Arredondo, the police chief for the Uvalde school district, he believed the shooter was holed inside, away from the students, and desired more equipment for the police before they entered.
However, cops outside were pleading with Arredondo to let the kids in as they were calling 911 pleading for assistance.
Additionally, the Austin-American Statesman has previously acquired devastating transcripts that demonstrate Arredondo pleading for assistance.
There were 11 officers inside the structure three minutes after Ramos walked in.
Seven minutes after Ramos entered Robb Elementary at 11:40 a.m., Arredondo made a call to the Uvalde Police Department to request assistance.
He declared, “Right now, it’s an emergency.”
He is present in the space. He possesses an AR-15. He’s been shot a lot.
They must be ready to exit the building because we now lack weaponry. All of it is pistols.
I don’t have a radio, continued Arredondo. Please bring a radio for me; I need it.
At 11:44 a.m., body camera footage captured additional shots from the shooter.
The cops were then visible in the shot at 11:52am wearing a ballistic shield.
According police transcripts from body cameras, one officer said, “If there are kids in there, we need to go in there.”
Someone else replied, “Whoever is in control will decide that.”
Arredondo insisted that the officers find the keys to open the door even though they had weapons.
Another cop with a ballistic shield entered the school at 12:03 p.m., and a third police followed two minutes later.
Arredondo attempted to communicate with the shooter about 12:20pm, which was 45 minutes after the incident started, and then he questioned whether he could be assassinated from outside the classroom.
Arredondo questioned whether police would think of “popping him through the window.”
Get two shooters to stand on either side of the window, he said. I propose that we break through those windows and shoot the man in the (expletive) head through them.
Arredondo instructed the SWAT squad members to break down the classroom door if they were prepared at 12:46 p.m.
Four minutes later, they did.
Ramos shot repeatedly as he went on a killing rampage while armed officers remained still in the corridor, as seen on footage of the trapped students and teachers in classrooms 111 and 112.
And a shocking study from the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training at Texas State University exposes “lost opportunities to save lives.”
One officer “observed the shooter outside the school but did not take action,” according to the report that was made public.
The report states that the officer “did not hear a response [on his radio] and turned to request confirmation from his supervisor.”
At 11:33 a.m., the suspect had already entered the west hall outside entrance when the officer turned around to confront him.
The Mayor stated last month that he disagreed with the report’s conclusions and claimed, in part, that “the shooter was not the coach with kids on the playground.”
Parents and neighborhood residents have now banded together to seek an explanation for the attack, and on Sunday, hundreds marched through the city demanding justice.
According to the New York Times, locals carried placards reading “Remember Their Names” and shouted “Save Our Kids” as the Unheard Voices March and Rally got underway at the elementary school.
Then, when they gathered at Uvalde Plaza, family members took turns reading the names of their loved ones and sharing stories of their crushed hopes.
Javier Cazares, whose daughter Jackie, age 9, was killed in the incident, coordinated the march.
He claimed that parents wanted a thorough explanation of what transpired during the police reaction on May 24 and that they wanted officials to hold those responsible accountable.
Some are also urging the conservative state to pass gun control laws.
Mother Tina Quintanilla-Taylor, who took her child out of school early that day, stated, “We want accountability from all levels – local level, county level, state level, and federal level.”
The Texas House investigating committee’s findings will now be made public in a private meeting with the families, according to an unidentified individual acquainted with the committee who spoke to the Times.
The Senate will also take public testimony on Tuesday and hear from invited guests on the topics of social media, police training, and school safety.
The eight Republicans and three Democrats who make up the committee will hear from specialists on mental health and weapons safety on Wednesday.