School Surveillance Footage Shows Police Response to Uvalde Shooting
Summary from the AllSides News Team
New footage shows the controversial police response to the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
The 77 minutes of footage, which were published by the Austin American-Statesman Tuesday, show armed officers gathered in the hallway outside the classroom where the gunman killed 19 students and two teachers. The video indicates that officers waited more than an hour after first entering the school before they breached the classroom and killed the shooter. Officers initially approached the classroom three minutes after the shooter entered, but retreated after the gunman appeared to open fire at them.
Law enforcement's response to the shooting has been criticized by across the political spectrum. Officers were accused of mistreating victims' parents at the scene and waiting too long to neutralize the shooter. The school's police chief then stepped down, and a Texas state senator sued Texas Department of Public Safety after being denied access to related records. The shooting is the third-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.
Outlets on all sides covered the footage. Coverage from the left and center tended to frame the police response more negatively and describe responding officers as heavily armed. Reports from the right focused more on voices that defended the police response, such as Uvalde's mayor, who highlighted on June 21 how "every other classroom in the building was safely evacuated." Outlets across the spectrum also mentioned how the Statesman's release of the footage was scrutinized by local officials for purportedly disrespecting victims' families.
Featured Coverage of this Story
From the Right
Uvalde surveillance footage shows police response as gunman murdered 19 children and 2 adults
Portions of surveillance footage of the Robb Elementary School shooting were published by the Austin American-Statesman and KVUE on Tuesday ahead of a planned release by officials on Sunday.
The footage shows the gunman, who authorities have identified as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, firing multiple shots from an AR-15 style rifle outside the school, then entering the building at 11:33 a.m. and shooting his way into adjoining classrooms.
A barrage of more than 100 bullets were fired inside those two classrooms over the next two-and-a-half minutes before seven officers ran into the school at 11:36,...
From the Left
Uvalde’s new anguish: Video shows police waiting in school
A new wave of anger swept through Uvalde on Tuesday over surveillance footage of police officers in body armor milling in the hallway of Robb Elementary School while a gunman carried out a massacre inside a fourth-grade classroom where 19 children and two teachers were killed.
The video published Tuesday by the Austin American-Statesman is a disturbing 80-minute recording of what has been known for weeks now about one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history: that heavily armed police officers, some armed with rifles and bulletproof shields, massed in the...
From the Left
Watch Uvalde school shooting video obtained by Statesman showing police response 
The gunman walks into Robb Elementary School unimpeded, moments after spraying bullets from his semi-automatic rifle outside the building and after desperate calls to 911 from inside and outside the Uvalde school.
He slows down to peek around a corner in the hallway and flips back his hair before proceeding toward classrooms 111 and 112.
Seconds later, a boy with neatly combed hair and glasses exits the bathroom to head back to his class. As he begins to turn the corner, he notices the gunman standing by the classroom door and then firing...
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