video as taken inside Rob’s Elementary School fully demonstrates the startling inaction by law enforcement during May slaughter Some of the 19 children and two teachers Uvalde Shouting: Will the police have to face the consequences?
Only one officer from the scene of the deadliest school shooting in Texas History is known for going on vacation. Officials still haven’t released the names of the officers who were found inside and outside a hallway near the fourth grade classrooms where the gunman was firing for more than an hour. And nearly two months after the massacre, there is still disagreement over who was in charge.
A nearly 80-minute hallway surveillance video published by the Austin American-Statesman showed for the first time in public – with disturbing and painful clarity – a hesitant and disorganized tactical response by fully armed officers that has been condemned by the Texas state police chief. . Failure and some Uvalde residents have exploded as cowards.
But it is not clear whether the action – or inaction – by the authorities at the school on May 24 will result in more than criticism, even raising demands for accountability and anger. City and state leaders have urged people to let the investigation go on.
There are signs that impatience is on the rise: Hours after the video was published, residents shouted from their seats at a city council meeting on Tuesday, demanding to know whether the officers involved in the shooting were still on force or were getting paid. Were. Council members did not respond.
“What about the cops?” One person shouted.
The police are provided with tremendous legal protection, founded with the idea that their jobs often require life and death decisions that are under great pressure. Even with the hesitation of officers captured in the video, police experts say it is difficult to predict how likely they are to face discipline or legal repercussions.
“It’s going to come down to what a proper police officer would have believed in that moment,” said criminologist Philip Stinson of Bowling Green State University.
Camera footage from a hallway inside the school shows the gunman entering the building with an AR-15-style rifle and includes 911 tapes of a teacher shouting, “Get down! Go to your rooms! Go to your rooms!”
Two officers approached the classrooms minutes after the gunman entered, then ran back amidst the sound of gunfire. From there, minutes pass from classrooms and more gunshots are heard when additional officers from several agencies arrive. More than an hour elapses before one team finally walks down the hallway, breaking up classes and ending the carnage.
More than a dozen officers – some armed with rifles and bulletproof shields – are visible during certain points of the video. During a long wait to face the gunman, a man in body armor and a vest that says “sheriff” pulls some of the hand sanitizer from a dispenser mounted on the wall.
It’s a completely different scene from the one described by Republican Governor Greg Abbott the day after the shooting, when he praised a swift response and officers who “showed amazing courage by running into the gunfight.” Abbott El Ater said he was given false information but did not say to whom.
This is just one example of false and conflicting statements made by officers in the seven weeks since the shooting. Asked on Wednesday whether an officer should face discipline for his inaction, Abbott’s spokeswoman René Aize said the governor believes no action will be taken until the investigation is complete. It is too early to decide.
After the 2018 shooting at Parkland High School in Florida that killed 17 people, a deputy who knew the gunman but refused to go inside, was arrested on criminal charges. Legal experts have said that it is an extremely rare case of someone being charged with compulsorily causing harm and have expressed doubts about the case, which is set for trial in February.
Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin said it was too early to decide whether any officers should be removed from the force. “I don’t know if he needs to step down,” he said. “But everything needs to be reviewed.”
So far, officials have publicly confirmed only one officer to be on leave: Uvalde School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who also resigned from his newly won city council seat last month. He has disputed the characterization of the state police that he was in charge of the scene.
A spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety said none of the soldiers present there had been suspended. Officials from Uvalde police and the sheriff’s office did not respond to questions about whether any of their officers had been suspended or placed on leave.
At a minimum, the officers in the video should switch to a different line of work, said Greg Schaefer, a Dallas-based security consultant and retired member of the FBI’s hostage rescue team.
“I think everyone in that hallway should reconsider their career choice,” he said. “If you don’t have the guts and mindset to run towards bullets as a police officer, you are in the wrong profession.”
Weber reported from Austin, Texas, and Bliberg reported from Dallas.
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