Stay Right Where You Are : You Might Get Hurt

"Our goal is to continue to bring to light what happened at Robb Elementary, which the families and friends of the Uvalde victims have long been asking for."

"The video that we obtained is one hour and 22 minutes long. It is tragic to listen to and watch. Our decision to publish, along with our news partner, KVUE, comes after long and thoughtful discussions."

"The Statesman is publishing two versions of the video, one that we edited to just over four minutes and highlights critical moments: the ease of gunman entering the school, how he shot his way into the classroom, the repeated sound of gunfire, and then the delay by police to stop the killer for 77 minutes as dozens of heavily armed officers stage in the school hallway before a group finally storms the classroom and kill the gunman."

Austin American-Statesman, Austin, Texas

Law enforcement officers are told to stay back as shots are heard down the hall inside a Robb Elementary school classroom in Uvalde, Texas. The still image is from school surveillance video obtained by the Austin American-Statesman. (Austin American-Statesman/Reuters)

What occurred in Uvalde, Texas at the Robb Elementary school was extraordinary and unbelievable. That police officers chose in their professional wisdom to stand by for an opportune time to present itself -- when they would finally intervene in an active shooting, allowing over an hour to pass, while knowing that a gunman was in a classroom full of children and their teachers, hearing children scream in terror the while as shots rang out, but being cautioned to wait -- is beyond belief. 

This was known. There were previous video releases published. The public might have gasped in disbelief, the community of Uvalde beside themselves with grief, the families of the 19 children who were killed that day living in a nightmare of inconsolable anguish, the two dead teachers memorialized, while authorities condemned the first responders' lack of action, in effect consigning vulnerable, helpless children and their teachers to death. 

The release of a new video, a lengthy one, following the action/inaction of the police dispatched to an active shooting at an elementary school provides more grief-inducing details, outlining and emphasizing the abysmal failure of a professional law-enforcement group to react expeditiously, using their training and experience to apprehend an intruder whose lethal purpose in stalking down defenceless children became all too obvious as the minutes ticked by.

 

No fewer than 77 minutes altogether, from the time the first group of police responded to the emergency, to the time when finally several of the well-armed and shielded police entered the unlocked-door schoolroom to confront the shooter and kill him. Children huddled, still, terrorized, hiding from the gunman in cupboards, under desks, covered with coats, trembling in traumatizing fear; some using cellphones to call for help some lying among their dead classmates, 'playing dead'.

 

Police form up before advancing on a classroom in which the gunman was located. (Austin American-Statesman/Reuters)

When the video was released it was first edited to remove some of the horror quotient before being viewed by the public; the sound of children screaming was no longer audible as the video ran on showing dozens of armed officers grouped about the hallway leading to the classroom. One might think storming the classroom would be an urgent necessity to rescue the children from their looming fate. As shots rang out, while children screamed for  help, the police gathered just outside the door waited. And waited.

 

Salvadore Ramos, the 18-year-old killer, had free rein to do what he had planned. The video shows him walking through the school holding a rifle, then unleashing countless rounds, firing for over two minutes in two classrooms. Over 100 rounds, according to authorities. It took but three minutes for police to initially enter the school. Several raced toward the gunman, others hunched down, some point to one another to signal where to stand, and then more gunfire through the school's hallway. Police who had run toward the gunman, retreat.

 

In another thirty minutes more police enter the school and the hallway carrying heavy weapons and shields, some with long rifles. Some 45 minutes following the police first entering the school they move toward the gunman down the hallway. Multiple officers walk up and then down the hallway. No attempt to enter the classroom. After an hour had elapsed since the initial shooting, two officers hug one another, then a third officer uses a hand sanitizer. A fist bump is exchanged between two officers.  

The camera picks up gunshots. The shots, evidently, that disabled the gunman, shooting him dead. 

In this image from school surveillance video, the gunman can be seen entering Robb Elementary school holding a rifle before killing 19 children and two teachers. (Austin American-Statesman/Reuters)