As of: 07/13/2022 7:46 p.m
Seven weeks after the school massacre in the small Texas town of Uvalde, images from a surveillance camera caused outrage: They show that police officers apparently hesitated 74 minutes before shooting the 18-year-old attacker.
The disturbing footage was leaked to the Texas newspaper Austin American-Statesman and local TV station KVUE. You can see the attacker from Uvalde entering the Robb Elementary School on May 24 at 11:33 a.m. and initially walking calmly through the empty corridors with his assault rifle. Then the 18-year-old enters one of the classrooms and opens fire. Dozens of shots can be heard.
Only three minutes later the first arriving police officers can be seen. Some of them approach the classroom where the shooter is – but run back down the hall as the 18-year-old shoots again. As a result, more and more police officers, some of them heavily armed, arrive, but without confronting the attacker. The officials seem helpless and undecided. At 12:30 p.m. you can even see a police officer using a disinfectant dispenser and rubbing the agent into his hands.
“All the cops just stand there”
It was not until 12:50 p.m., 74 minutes after the first police officers arrived, that the emergency services stormed the classroom and shot the attacker. “All these police officers with their protective shields, with their guns, with their bulletproof vests, are just standing there,” says Daniel Valdez, a Uvalde resident who saw the video.
The security forces have already come under heavy criticism for their actions in the school massacre in which 19 children and two teachers were shot. About a month after the bloodbath, the head of the Texas security agency, Steven McCraw, accused the local police officers of “abject failure”. The operations manager put the life of the officials above the life of the children.
US police officers are actually trained to eliminate the attacker as quickly as possible in school massacres in order to prevent further victims. The video recordings that have now been released caused new outrage. At a town meeting on Tuesday evening, residents and relatives vented their anger. “Does anyone think they did a good job?” asks Adam Martinez, another Uvalde resident. “Was that good enough? For the people who bled to death there? That wasn’t good enough!”.
“Slap our children in the face”
Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin did not respond to criticism of the police operation. Instead, he criticized the media for releasing the footage: “You don’t have to go through this again, you’ve been through enough.” The families of the victims called for the video not to be shared on social media. “We’re angry!” said Javier Cazares, the father of one of the victims. “This is a slap in the face to our children.”
Berlinda Arreola, the grandmother of ten-year-old Amerie Jo Garza, who also died in the attack, reacted in a similar way: “Whoever published the video, I pray that he or she never has to go through something like the parents, Grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins of the victims.”
Shortly after the fact, Democrats and Republicans agreed on a slight tightening of gun laws. Among other things, the new law provides for expanded background checks on gun buyers under the age of 21. In addition, financial incentives are to be created for the individual states to temporarily remove the guns from potentially dangerous gun owners. Billions are also planned for safety in schools and better psychiatric care in the country.