Despite the City of Uvalde’s efforts to suppress information related to the school shooting at Robb Elementary School last month, images from inside the school captured during the massacre have surfaced.
The video images obtained by the Austin American Statesman show that the police were fully armed with weapons and a ballistic shield nearly an hour before confronting and killing the shooting suspect, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos. Ramos is accused of killing 19 children and two teachers in the rampage.
The fact that law enforcement had more than adequate weaponry and protection to storm the classroom much sooner than they did is considered a significant development by investigators.
After the Texas Department of Public Safety disclosed that officers waited more than 70 minutes to approach the shooter while trapped students dialed 911 for assistance, local law enforcement has come under intense scrutiny for its response time.
According to the timeline authorities established by reviewing the video, the shooter entered the school at 11:33 a.m., and 11 officers reportedly entered the school three minutes afterward. At 11:40 a.m., District Police Chief Pete Arredondo dialed the Uvalde Police Department’s landline to request assistance.
Body camera footage then indicates the shooter fired additional shots at 11:44 a.m. The first police with a ballistic shield entered the school at 11:52 a.m.
One officer can be heard saying, “If there’s kids in there, we need to go in there.”
Even though Col. Steven McCraw of the Texas Department of Public Safety asserted that police did not check the classroom door to see whether it was locked, video footage indicates that Arredondo was searching for keys to the classroom.
An additional policeman with a shield entered the school at 12:03 p.m., and a third officer carrying a shield arrived two minutes later. The video indicates Arredondo may have made an effort to communicate with the suspected shooter, asking whether Ramos could hear him.
The timeline then reveals that at 12:46 p.m., Arredondo instructed the SWAT officers that had just arrived to break down the classroom door as soon as they were ready.
At 12:50 p.m., a Border Patrol BORTAC agent finally entered the classroom against the orders of the police and fatally shot Ramos, Zero Hedge reports.
The City of Uvalde has allegedly tried to restrict public access to body camera images, pictures, 911 calls, emails, texts, criminal records, and more, according to Vice.
The city has hired a lawyer from a private law firm to prevent the disclosure of nearly any information regarding the mass shooting.
“The City [of Uvalde] has not voluntarily released any information to a member of the public,” said Cynthia Trevino, the city’s lawyer, in a letter to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Uvalde and its police department want to be excluded from disclosing a variety of records, in part because they are facing legal action, are under investigation, and some of the documents could contain “highly embarrassing information,” according to Trevino. Also, some information could cause “emotional/mental distress.”
Trevino sent Paxton a letter on June 16, asking for a legal ruling on what information the city must make available to the public. In the end, Paxton’s office will decide whether the city’s arguments are valid and which data, if any, must be made available.
