Newly released bodycam footage revealed more details Monday about the much-criticized police response to the 2022 mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
Footage shows police officers moving through the hallways of Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022. Gunman Salvador Ramos killed 19 students and two adults during his rampage, which went on for more than an hour as police hesitated to intervene.
Officials from the city of Uvalde released the footage this weekend alongside a trove of audio, video and other records relating to the tragedy. The release came after the Associated Press and other news organizations brought a lawsuit after the officials initially refused to publicly release the information from one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history.
Also in the release was audio from a frantic 911 call made by teachers inside the school building.
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A lawsuit by news organizations has revealed new audio and video records relating to the shooting in Uvalde, Texas. (William Luther/The San Antonio Express-News via AP)
One of the terrified teachers who frantically dialed 911 described “a lot, a whole lot of gunshots,” while another sobbed into the phone as a dispatcher urged her to stay quiet.
“Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry!” the first teacher cried before hanging up.
The delayed law enforcement response to the shooting — nearly 400 officers waited more than 70 minutes before confronting the gunman in a classroom filled with dead and wounded children and teachers — has been widely condemned as a massive failure.
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Just before arriving at the school, Ramos shot and wounded his grandmother at her home. He then took a pickup truck from the home and drove to Robb Elementary.
A still image from surveillance video shows law enforcement officers staging in a hallway after Salvador Ramos entered Robb Elementary school to kill 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, 2022. (Texas House Investigative Committee/Handout via REUTERS)
Ramos’ distraught uncle made several 911 calls begging to be put through so he could try to get his nephew to stop shooting.
“Maybe he could listen to me because he does listen to me, everything I tell him he does listen to me,” the man, who identified himself as Armando Ramos, said on the 911 call. “Maybe he could stand down or do something to turn himself in,” Ramos said, his voice cracking.
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He said his nephew, who had been with him at his house the night before, stayed with him in his bedroom all night, and told him that he was upset because his grandmother was “bugging” him.
A memorial outside Robb Elementary School is seen following the May 2022 shooting. (REUTERS/Kaylee Greenlee Beal)
“Oh my God, please, please, don’t do nothing stupid,” the man says on the call. “I think he’s shooting kids.”
But the offer arrived too late, coming just around the time that the shooting had ended and law enforcement officers killed Salvador Ramos.
The shooting has been the subject of multiple state and local investigations, which unilaterally condemned the police response.
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The police response included nearly 150 U.S. Border Patrol agents and 91 state police officials, as well as school and city police. While dozens of officers stood in the hallway trying to figure out what to do, students inside the classroom called 911 on cellphones, begging for help, and desperate parents who had gathered outside the building pleaded with officers to go in. A tactical team eventually entered the classroom and killed the shooter.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
