AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Desperate parents begged law enforcement officers to storm an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, in the frantic minutes after a gunman opened fire in one of the deadliest classroom attacks in U.S. history, police body camera video released Tuesday shows.
“Whose class is he in?” one parent can be heard asking. Another comes up and yells, “Come on man, my daughter is in there!”
The heartbreaking videos show the agonizingly slow law enforcement response along with confusion and delays. Authorities failed to confront 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos for more than an hour after the attack at Robb Elementary School began on May 24, 2022. Nineteen students and two teachers were killed.
The records released Tuesday are the final batch of documents that local authorities withheld during a yearslong legal battle over public access. Family members of the victims, including Jesse Rizo, the uncle of 9-year-old victim Jackie Cazares, were among those pushing for the records to be released.
“When a shooter comes in and destroys the community and causes a ripple effect, this is the reality. And you cannot shy away from it,” said Rizo, who was elected to the school board after the shooting.
He said had been talking to family members and not all of them felt they would be able to watch the videos and read the documents immediately.
“For those that are ready for it, I hope that it provides some kind of healing,” he said.
The documents disclosed that deputies visited the gunman’s home three months before the shooting after his mother said she was scared of him, while nearly six hours of bodycam videos revealed missteps and frustration throughout the attack and its aftermath.
Frightened parents urge officers to act
Several videos show officers from multiple departments inside the school hallway and standing outside, some suggesting throwing gas in the window or searching for a key to the locked classroom. But it’s unclear who is in charge.
Within minutes, parents making their way to a fence near the school yell at officers to do something.
One parent angrily says, “Either you go in or I’m going in bro,” adding a few seconds later, “My kids are in there, bro. … Please!”
In one video, an officer involved in the initial response can be heard saying, “We can’t see him at all” before adding, “We were at the front and he started shooting.”
The officer wearing the bodycam asks: “He’s in a classroom right?” Another officer responds: “With kids.”
“Something needs to be done ASAP,” a voice can be heard saying almost an hour before anyone charged into the classroom.
Outside, a woman who says she’s a relative of the gunman sobs, telling police to “take him out.”
Deputies met Uvalde gunman months earlier
Documents released Monday by the school district offer the most detailed look yet at the gunman whose downward spiral began in middle school with a series of suspensions and warnings for harassment and bullying. He dropped out of school just months before the shooting.
Sheriff’s deputies went to the gunman’s home on two consecutive nights before the attack because he was arguing with his mother over Wi-Fi and broken video game equipment after she turned off the internet, according to county records released Tuesday.
Adriana Reyes said her son never hit her but told deputies she was scared of him and needed help, a report said. Ramos’ grandmother picked him up one night, and deputies drove him there the next night.
Media organizations, including The Associated Press, sued the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District and Uvalde County in 2022 for the release of their records. A Texas appeals court in July upheld a lower court’s ruling that the records must be made public.
Last year, city officials in Uvalde released body camera footage and recordings of 911 calls.
Minutes ticked by as officers waited
Nearly 400 officers waited more than 70 minutes before confronting the gunman in a classroom filled with dead and wounded children and teachers. A Department of Justice review later cited “cascading failures” in the handling of the massacre while another report by Texas lawmakers faulted law enforcement at every level with failing “to prioritize saving innocent lives over their own safety.”
Uvalde schools police chief Pete Arredondo and Adrian Gonzales, another former school district officer, are the only two officers who face criminal charges for their actions that day. They both have pleaded not guilty to child endangerment and abandonment and are scheduled for trial later this year.
At one point, Arredondo is seen on body camera sending another officer to get a master key. Later investigations found no evidence the classroom door was locked.
Early on, he tells officers crouched near him that they are going to clear all the rooms before breaching the classroom because “time is on our side right now.”
He says they don’t know if there are students inside but, “we’re gonna save the lives of the other ones.”
There’s also concern that the gunman might be holding a child as a human shield or that someone might be caught in crossfire.
Officers can be seen tucked in recesses in the hallway as one outside the building says: “They are taking him out. Stand by.”
But the minutes tick past.
“We are waiting,” an officer outside says.
A voice can be heard saying over a loudspeaker: “Please put your firearm down. We don’t want anyone else hurt.”
Finally, officers rush inside the classroom and three shots ring out.
One officer walks out of the classroom, anguish on his face as medical workers move into the hallway.
“I think there are a lot left,” one person says. Another officer walks out of the classroom, shaking his head.
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The story has been corrected to show deputies went to the gunman’s house on two consecutive nights, not three.
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Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio. Associated Press reporters Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Missouri; Ben Finley in Norfolk, Virginia; Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas; Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia; and Ed White in Detroit contributed.
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