Leaked Uvalde shooting video shows gunman calmly walk into school
The video Uvalde cops didn’t want you to see: 17 officers RAN AWAY from gunman as he sprayed 100 rounds into two classrooms full of kids – and they spent 77 minutes doing nothing while 19 children and two teachers were killed
- Footage of the Uvalde police response to the shooting was leaked on Tuesday
- It shows how Salvador Ramos, 18, sauntered through the halls at Robb Elementary School carrying an AR-15 as a teacher called for help
- He then walked into two classrooms and fired for two and a half minutes, shooting off 100 rounds
- The first officers arrived three minutes later, but stood back, with one seen checking his cellphone
- Nothing happens until Border Patrol agents ran to the classrooms and began firing at Ramos, killing him
- Still, the Uvalde police stood back in the hallway
- Two teachers and 19 children were killed in the May 24 massacre
Leaked footage shows how cops in Uvalde, Texas ran away from the gunfire at Robb Elementary School as he fired more than 100 rounds at children in two classrooms.
Video obtained by The Austin-American Statesman documents the police officers’ failed response to the shooting at Robb Elementary School on May 24, in which 19 students and two teachers were killed.
It begins with Salvador Ramos, 18, crashing his truck outside of the school that morning and firing some rounds in the school parking lot.
A teacher could be heard telling 911: ‘The kids are running. Oh my God.’
She then instructs the students to ‘get down, get in your rooms, get in your rooms.’
But Ramos calmly saunters into the building and walks through the hallways carrying his AR-15. He stops briefly to comb his hair before continuing to classrooms 111 and 112, where the massacre unfolded.
Meanwhile, a young boy who comes into view could be seen spotting Ramos as he walked down the hallway.
The boy could then be seen running away, with his arms apparently flailing. The Statesman noted at that point that it edited out children’s screams.
At that point, Ramos ducks into the classrooms, where he fires his rifle for two and a half minutes, shooting off 100 rounds, according to officials.
The first police officers arrive on the scene just three minutes later, with some seen running towards the classroom, crouching in the hallway as others stay back.
But after they hear gunfire, the police officers run back down the hallway.
One could even be seen pulling his cellphone out of his pocket, apparently to check the time. Others, the Statesman reports, sent texts and looked at floor plans as precious minutes ticked by.
Leaked surveillance footage shows Salvador Ramos, 18, sauntering through the halls of Robb Elementary School on May 24 carrying an AR-15
The first police officers enter the school just about three minutes after the gunman, but continue to stand back in the hallway
After more than half an hour, other officers could be seen entering the building with ballistic shields and rifles pointed down the hallway to the classrooms where Ramos is hiding out.
By 12.21pm, 45 minutes after police arrived on the scene, at least a dozen officers could be seen moving toward the classrooms.
One officer even says, ‘They’re making entry,’ but they do not.
Instead, they continue to stand around, with one officer wearing a helmet and a ballistic vest pausing to squirt hand sanitizer from a wall-mounted dispenser and rubbing his hands together.
Finally after 77 minutes, a team of Border Patrol agents finally rushes in and runs toward the classrooms.
An exchange of gunfire could be heard, but still the Uvalde police officers stand back.
After 77 minutes, Border Patrol agents could be seen storming into the classroom and are heard opening fire, but still the Uvalde police stand back
The video was expected to be released on Monday, officials had announced, but it is now expected to be released later on Sunday after it is shown to the Uvalde community, Rep. Dustin Burrows, the chairman of the Texas House panel investigating the shooting, tweeted today.
‘The Committee will convene at 2 p.m. on Sunday in Uvalde,’ Burrows wrote. ‘We will meet with members of the community first, and provide them an opportunity to see the hallway video and discuss our preliminary report. Very soon thereafter, we will release both to the public.’
The footage documents how cops stood back for 77 minutes as school shooter Salvador Ramos, 18, stalked across the parking lot at Robb Elementary School on May 24 and carried out the deadliest school massacre in Texas history, gunning down two teachers and 19 children.
The video was expected to be released on Sunday after it is shown to the Uvalde community, Rep. Dustin Burrows tweeted on Tuesday
KVUE reports that the video begins when Ramos crashed his truck in a ditch outside of the school on the morning of May 24 and entered the building carrying an AR-15.
He could then be seen walking down the school’s hallway toward some of the classrooms, the news channel reports, and after he turns the corner, a young boy could be seen coming into the frame.
In a heartbreaking moment of the video, the boy is seen running away as screams could be heard ringing out throughout the halls and classrooms.
Ramos does not appear to notice the boy, who apparently escaped unharmed, as he fires off his first shots at the classrooms before entering rooms 111 and 112.
Between the gunfire, screams can be heard emanating from the teachers and students barricaded in the classrooms.
The first law enforcement officials arrived on the scene just three minutes after Ramos entered the building, according to KVUE, and are seen running in the direction of the classrooms – but soon turn around as bullets are flying.
After about 30 minutes, officers with rifles could be seen arriving on the scene, and the first officers with ballistic shields are at the school in under 20 minutes.
Dozens of officers could be seen standing in the hallway, 13 of them carrying long rifles, local news reported, as Ramos continued shooting.
For over an hour, none of the officers entered the classrooms.
Salvador Ramos, 18, (pictured) shot and killed 19 students and two teachers while cops held back for over an hour during the Uvalde massacre on May 24
Prior to releasing the footage, ABC News reported, Rep. Burrows said the video ‘would contain no graphic images or depictions of violence.
‘I can tell people all day long what it is I saw, the committee can tell people all day long what we saw, but it’s very different to see it for yourself,’ he said. ‘And we think that’s important.’
He said he is committed to continuing ‘to put pressure on the situation and consider all options in making sure that video gets out for the public to view.’
Officials have previously admitted that the situation could have been stopped within just three minutes after images from surveillance footage inside the school showed heavily-armed police officers holding ballistic shields and aiming their rifles down the hallway.
The image was taken at 12.04pm on May 24 – 46 minutes before Border Patrol agents entered the classroom and fatally shot Ramos, and more than half an hour after he first entered the building and started firing.
The officers were stopped by police chief Pete Arredondo, who claimed the suspect had barricaded himself inside and said he needed a key to get inside.
The move to release the new footage comes after a group of parents marched through the town on Sunday night demanding accountability, as police chief Pete Arredondo remains on administrative leave.
Children at Robb Elementary School are pictured running to safety after Ramos opened fire in two classrooms on May 24
Crime scene tape surrounded Robb Elementary School in the aftermath of the shooting
Mayor Don McLaughlin said on Friday he backed the plans by the Texas House Special Committee to release the clips.
McLaughlin added that he hopes sharing the clips will ‘bring clarity to the public,’ amid increasing questions as to why Ramos wasn’t stopped earlier in his rampage after the surveillance photos were released by the Austin American-Statesman last month.
The gunman wasn’t stopped until Border Patrol agents entered the building and shot and killed him.
Furious parents and relatives of the 19 children and two teachers murdered on May 24 are demanding to know why the 18-year-old gunman was free to continue his rampage as the officers stayed outside the classrooms.
Ramos entered the school at 11:33am, and wasn’t shot dead until 12:50pm.
Pete Arredondo, the Uvalde school district police chief, has said that he thought the gunman was barricaded inside, away from the children, and wanted more equipment for the police before they went in.
But there are now records of children calling 911 begging for help, and reports of police officers outside urging Arredondo to let them go in.
Authorities have admitted there was a failure of police officers to act that day as Ramos continued his rampage. Officers stand outside the elementary school following the shooting
Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Chief Pete Arredondo was in charge and mistakenly thought there were no other kids alive in the room once the shooter had barricaded himself inside
The AustinAmerican-Statesman has also previously obtained damning transcripts showing Arredondo asking for help.
Three minutes after Ramos entered the building, 11 officers were inside.
At 11:40am, seven minutes after Ramos set foot inside Robb Elementary, Arredondo called Uvalde Police Department and asked for help.
‘It’s an emergency right now,’ he said.
‘We have him in the room. He’s got an AR-15. He’s shot a lot.
‘They need to be outside the building prepared because we don’t have firepower right now. It’s all pistols.’
Arredondo added: ‘I don’t have a radio. I need you to bring a radio for me.’
Four minutes later, at 11:44am, body camera footage picked up more shots from the gunman.
Then, at 11:52am, the photo showed the officers with a ballistic shield.
‘If there’s kids in there, we need to go in there,’ one officer said, according to body camera transcripts.
Another responded: ‘Whoever is in charge will determine that.’
Despite the officers having rifles, Arredondo insisted they find the keys to open the door.
At 12:03pm, an officer with another ballistic shield entered the school, and a third arrived two minutes later.
Around 12:20pm – 45 minutes after the attack began – Arredondo tried to speak to the gunman, and then wondered whether he could be killed from outside the classroom.
Arredondo asked if officers would consider ‘popping him through the window?’
He suggested: ‘Get two shooters on either side of the window? I say we breach those windows and shoot his (expletive) head off through the windows.’
At 12:46pm, Arredondo told SWAT team officers who had arrived that they should breach the classroom door if they were ready.
They did so four minutes later.
Uvalde School Police Chief Pete Arredondo, second from left, during a news conference outside of the Robb Elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, a few days after the shooting
Police are seen staging outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde on May 24
Police run near Robb Elementary School following the shooting on May 24
Meanwhile, video shows that students and teachers were trapped inside classrooms 111 and classrooms 112 as Ramos fired consecutive rounds of ammunition on his killing spree while armed officers stood quietly in the hallway.
And a bombshell report from the Texas State University’s Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training reveals ‘missed opportunities to save lives.’
The report revealed that ‘one officer saw the shooter outside the school but did not take action.’
The ‘officer did not hear a response [on his radio] and turned to get confirmation from his supervisor,’ the report details.
‘When he turned back to address the suspect, the suspect had already entered the west hall exterior door at 11:33:00.’
The Mayor said last month he disputed the report’s findings, and said in a statement in part, that ‘it was a coach with children on the playground, not the shooter.’
Arnulfo Reyes, 45, a fourth-grade teacher at Robb Elementary School, said he does not understand why Arredondo refused to act.
Reyes revealed to NPR that he is second-cousins with school’s police chief who has been blasted for holding officers back for more than an hour as Ramos locked himself inside the building with the students.
Reyes, a fourth-grade teacher (pictured speaking to ABC News) was wounded in the shooting on May 24, where Ramos killed all 11 of his students at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde
He said his classroom’s doorknob had been broken for at least two years – something he says Arredondo knew even though the police chief claimed he had to search for keys to enter the building.
‘I wish he would have said, “I’m going in there because that’s my family,”‘ Reyes said. ‘But he didn’t.’
‘There’s really no excuse for 77 minutes,’ he added of the time it took for Border Patrol agents to enter the elementary school and confront Ramos, who they shot dead.
During that time, Reyes said, he had to play dead for about an hour after Ramos shot him in the arm and watched as he gunned down all 11 of his students who were in the classroom that day.
Ramos later shot him again in the back, causing him to struggle to breathe.
Now, he said, he is not sure whether he will return to teaching after spending 17 years molding young minds.
In his interview with NPR, Reyes recounted how seven of his students left school early on May 24, following an awards ceremony for perfect attendance as the school year was wrapping up.
The remaining 11 students were watching a movie together when the first shots rang out, a moment he previously recounted to ABC News. None of them survived.
All 11 of Reyes’ students at Robb Elementary School were killed in the school massacre
The 1veteran teacher said as he went to huddle under a table with the children, he turned around to see Ramos standing there – who then let off a burst of fire into the classroom, striking Reyes three times before he went on to shoot all of his students.
At one point, he said, he could hear Ramos responding to calls from the police, who remained outside for more than an hour.
Finally, officers returned to Reyes’ classroom, where he said he heard them pleading with Ramos to come out. They told him they just wanted to speak with him, and that they were not going to hurt him, the teacher told ABC.
There was silence, he said, before cops finally breached the door and shot Ramos dead. By then, Reyes’ 11 students had already been killed.
Parents and community members demanded answers about the police response to the shooting on May 24 in a march that was held last week
They gathered at the school and marched to Uvalde Plaza where they named the victims and recounted their broken dreams
Parents and community members came together last weekend to demand answers in the attack, with hundreds marching through the city calling for accountability.
The Unheard Voices March and Rally started at the elementary school, with community members carrying signs reading ‘Remember Their Names, and chanting ‘Save Our Kids,’ according to the New York Times.
Then, as they assembled at Uvalde Plaza, relatives took turns reading their loved ones’ names and recounting their shattered dreams.
The march was organized by Javier Cazares, whose 9-year-old daughter, Jackie was killed in the shooting.
He said parents were demanding a detailed explanation about what happened during the police response on May 24, and demanding officials hold those at fault accountable.
Some are also calling for gun control measures to be enacted in the politically conservative state.
‘We want accountability from all levels – local level, county level, state level, federal level,’ said mother Tina Quintanilla-Taylor, who pulled her child out of school early that day.
On Wednesday, the committee of eight Republicans and three Democrats will hear from experts on mental health and firearm safety.
A minute-by-minute break down of how cops waited outside class while kids called 911 after gunman walked through door that had been propped open by a teacher
11.28am: Gunman crashes truck, gets out of car with AR-15. He is seen by witnesses in a funeral home next to the school who tell 911 they see a man with a gun walking towards the school
11.31: Gunman is now in the parking lot of the school hiding in between vehicles, shooting at the building
11.32: School resource officer who arrives in a patrol car after hearing 911 call about truck crash drives past the shooter
11.33: Gunman enters the school and begins shooting into room 111/room 112. He shoots more than 100 rounds
11.35: Three police officers enter the same propped-open door as the suspect from the Uvalde PD. They were later followed by another four, making total of seven officers on scene. Three initial officers went directly to the door and got grazing wounds from him while the door was closed. They hang back
11.37: Another 16 rounds fired inside the classroom by the gunman
11.51: Police sergeant and USB agents arrive
12.03: Officers continue to arrive in the hallway. As many as 19 officers in that hallway at that time. At the same time, a girl from inside the classroom calls 911 and whispers that she is in room 112
12.10pm: The same girl calls back and advises ‘there are multiple dead’
12.13pm: The same girl calls again
12.16pm: The same girl calls 911 for the fourth time in 13 minutes asking for help
12.15pm: BORTAC (SWAT) members arrive with shields
12.16pm: The same unidentified girl calls 911 and says there are ‘8-9 students alive’ in classroom 112
12.19pm: A different child from classroom 111 calls. She hangs up when another student tells her to in order to be quiet
12.21pm: Gunman fires again
12.26pm: One of the girls who previously called 911 calls back again. She says the shooter has just ‘shot at the door’
12.43pm: The girl on that girl is still on the line. She says ‘please send the police now’
12.50pm: Police finally breach the door using keys from the janitor and kill gunman
12.51pm Officers start moving children out of the room
Source: Read Full Article