Anish Vij
A new surveillance video has been released by officials showing footage of inside Robb Elementary School amid the Uvalde school shooting where 21 people were killed.
The 77-minute video, which officials say ends before law enforcement finally breached the classroom on May 24, does not contain images of children.
Watch below:
18-year-old Salvador Ramos is said to have killed 19 children and two adults after entering Robb Elementary School in Uvalde and opening fire on students and teachers on 24 May.
Representative Dustin Burrows, a Republican leading an investigation into the shooting, tweeted: “We feel strongly that members of the Uvalde community should have the opportunity to see the video and hear from us before they are made public.”
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Mr Burrows said his committee has interviewed more than 40 people behind closed doors over the last few weeks, including law enforcement who were at the scene.
He has defended the committee talking with witnesses in private to elicit more candour about what happened.
Police have received public backlash following the incident and have been questioned as to why it took so long for them to stop the gunman.
Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, told a state Senate hearing last month that Mr Arredondo — the on-site commander — made 'terrible decisions'.
He also said that the police response was an 'abject failure'.
Three minutes after 18-year-old Salvador Ramos entered the school, sufficient armed law enforcement were on scene to stop the gunman, Mr McCraw said in evidence.
Yet police officers armed with rifles stood and waited in a school corridor for over an hour while the gunman carried out the massacre.
The classroom door could not be locked from the inside, but there is no indication officers tried to open the door while the gunman was inside, Mr McCraw said.
Mr McCraw has said parents begged police outside the school to move in and pupils inside the classroom repeatedly pleaded with 911 operators for help while more than a dozen officers waited in a corridor.
Officers from other agencies urged Mr Arredondo to let them move in because children were in danger.
“The only thing stopping a hallway of dedicated officers from entering room 111 and 112 was the on-scene commander who decided to place the lives of officers before the lives of children,” Mr McCraw said.
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