UVALDE, Texas – Body-worn camera footage released by Uvalde County on Tuesday captured the chaotic moments when officers finally breached the Robb Elementary classroom where an 18-year-old gunman had holed himself up and killed 19 students and two teachers.
The county records include nearly seven hours’ worth of footage from May 24, 2022, as well as 1,576 pages of emails, text messages and other documents.
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The footage provided another view of the chaotic and delayed response to the tragedy. Officers did not breach the door and kill the gunman until approximately 77 minutes after the first officers arrived at the school, even as students inside the classrooms called 911.
“You ready to catch somebody?” a law enforcement officer in the video asked minutes before a small group of Border Patrol agents moved toward the classroom door.
Body-worn camera footage released Tuesday showed they finally rushed the door at 12:50 p.m. Three shots then rang out.
In the videos, officers are seen carrying the shooter and victims from the classroom. Some of them screaming for help as paramedics with gurneys moved in.
The county blurred victims in the footage.
“Watch the kids,” officers were heard yelling. “EMT, medic...”
“Where’s the suspect?” one officer asked.
“He’s dead,” another replied.
“There’s a lot of blood in there,” an officer is heard saying.
Minutes after the room was breached, it appeared that the U.S. Border Patrol’s Tactical Unit (BORTAC) and paramedics told everyone who wasn’t a medic to move out.
“Yeah, come on, guys,” Uvalde CISD police Chief Pete Arredondo is heard telling people.
Videos showed officers moving out of the hallway, all with a look of anguish or dismay on their faces.
Among the law enforcement in the hallways were Ruben Ruiz, the husband of teacher Eva Mireles in addition to Felix Rubio, the father of student Lexi Rubio.
Ruiz worked with Uvalde CISD police and Rubio was a Uvalde County Sheriff’s deputy.
Rubio was off-duty at the time but rushed to the school after he heard about the shooting.
“Ruben! Ruben!” multiple officers are heard yelling at Ruiz as he tried to go inside the classroom while victims were being carried out.
“My wife’s in there,” Ruiz tells the officer. It’s unclear if Ruiz was escorted out of the building due to blurring and obstructions in the video.
Rubio is seen in the hallway before officers breached the door and while victims were being carried out.
Arredondo was believed to be the incident commander since the shooting happened on school property. He was fired in the months following the shooting and was later indicted for failing to protect children.
Arredondo and Adrian Gonzales, another former Uvalde school district officer, are the only responding officers who currently face criminal charges for their actions on that day.
Arredondo and Gonzales were just two of the officers seen milling around the hallway while teachers and students remained trapped inside the classroom.
The records released Tuesday are the final batch of documents that local authorities withheld during a yearslong legal battle over public access. Family members of the victims were among those pushing for the records to be released.
Last month, a state appeals court judge sided with KSAT 12 News and other media organizations in a 2022 lawsuit against the district and county seeking the release of their records related to the mass shooting.
More recent Robb Elementary coverage on KSAT: