New video of first responders at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, shows, up close, the law enforcement response to the massacre as it was occurring.
Footage from the body cameras show officers breaking windows to pull children out of the school, as well as inside a hallway fumbling with keys and failing to pry open a door near the place where a school shooter had control of two classrooms with murdered and terrified children and teachers, according to CNN.
In addition, this new footage shows conversations between officers and pleas to the gunman.
Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin gave the footage to CNN, despite instructions from the office of District Attorney Christina Mitchell Busbee, who is leading an investigation into the police response.
McLaughlin told CNN Sunday that, despite being told from the beginning by the DA’s office not to release anything, he considered the DA’s instructions moot given the new footage, particularly from the hallway.
“I’m tired of the families getting dumped on. The families have suffered more than anybody already with the loss of their children. And they have been slapped in the face at every turn. Enough’s enough. We’ve asked for transparency. We’ve asked for it from the investigation. I don’t think we’re still getting it, but at least whatever we have, we’re going to release and we’re going to be transparent,” McLaughlin said.
Busbee said in a statement last month that “any release of records to that incident at this time would interfere with said ongoing investigation and would impede a thorough and complete investigation.”
The video’s release comes the same day as an interim report from a Texas House Committee into the shooting described “systemic failures” and said that law enforcement officers “failed to adhere to their active shooter training, and they failed to prioritize saving innocent lives over their own safety.”
Via Newsmax