More On: Salvador Ramos
A report from a Texas panel shows how easy it was for Uvalde school shooter Salvador Ramos to get weapons before he turned 18 years old
Worrying new video shows Salvador Ramos walking through the halls of a Uvalde school while police run away from gunshots
New footage of the horrifying attack in Uvalde, Texas, released on Tuesday shows that responding police officers ran away from gunfire while 19 children and two teachers were left to die in their classrooms.
The Austin-American Statesman was the first to find the disturbing video. It shows how police officers stood around in the hallway of Robb Elementary School while 18-year-old Salvador Ramos killed 21 people one by one on May 24.
The 77-minute clip shows officers rushing into the school just minutes after 18-year-old Ramos started his rampage. Instead of confronting him, they stopped and waited, and one cop in a helmet and vest can be seen using a hand sanitizer and checking his phone.
The footage from the school security cameras also shows the officers running down the hallway when Ramos opens fire on them.
The video backs up damning reports that local and state officials did nothing to stop the bloodbath even though they were only yards away from the shooter.
On the video, you can see heavily armed officers walking around in the hallway, going out, coming back, talking to each other, and making phone calls when they could have been trying to stop Ramos.
At 77 minutes into the recording, the police finally get into the classroom where Ramos, who died in the attack, had shot and killed innocent children and teachers.
In one part of the recording, more than 45 minutes after they got there, an officer in a helmet and vest can be seen using a hand sanitizer dispenser that is attached to the wall. The same officer is also seen looking at his phone.
The video also shows the police looking for the classroom's keys, which turned out to be useless because the classroom wasn't even locked.
Sunday, state lawmakers were going to put out the video. Officials had said that they wanted to give grieving families a chance to see the video before it was made public.
Vincent Salazar, whose 11-year-old daughter Layla Salazar was killed in the shooting, told The Post that he had not seen the video before the Statesman published it and that the families of the victims felt "blindsided."
He had been told what was in the video by the Texas Department of Public Safety, but he said that seeing it was different.
“We all know that the [police] didn’t do their jobs, but seeing it will reaffirm that. There needs to be accountability. A lot of these people who didn’t act shouldn’t have their jobs,” Salazar said.
The Statesmen put out an edited version of the video that shows the most important parts of the day. The paper also said that "the sound of children screaming" was taken out.
Many of the parents waited outside the school while Ramos was shooting, but they were not allowed to go in and try to save their children. The video is likely to make them even more angry.
The chairman of the state committee looking into the shooting, Texas House Representative Dustin Burrows, told the Post on Tuesday, "At this point, we are keeping our promise to share it with the families as part of our report."
Salazar didn't understand why the newspaper put it out before families could see it privately.
“I’m not sure their reason … why not wait? I guess that’s just how media works,” he said.
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