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On Tuesday, July 12, new footage published of the Uvalde massacre revealed that officers responding to the incident had fled the alleged gunman as he carried out the attack.
On May 24, 2022, Salvador Ramos unleashed a mass shooting at Robb Elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. Ramos was accused of killing 19 students and two teachers before being gunned down by local authorities.
Latest footage has now revealed a lack of urgency in the response of the officers, who stood waiting as the gunman was pacing the hallways. One officer is even seen using a hand sanitizer. In another piece of footage, authorities are allegedly seen fleeing from the accused gunman as he began firing.
This has provoked outrage from netizens, who believe it to be an indication of a lack of courage and preparation among American authorities in dealing with school shootings.
The Uvalde attack, one of the deadliest in the history of the Texas school system, illicited outrage among netizens, who argued that authorities had a lackluster response to the attack. As per the BBC, officers took over an hour to confront the reported gunman.
Netizens also claimed that officials and members of the Uvalde police are making attempts to suppress the footage depicting the attack.
Owing to their slow response, Uvalde authorities have faced severe criticism since the shooting
This is not the first time authorities have come under fire for the way they handled the mass shooting. A great deal of scrutiny was directed towards former Uvalde police chief Pete Arredondo, who has since resigned from his role due to the backlash.
On June 21, Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, condemned Arredondo and the officers for their response.
McCraw said:
"There is compelling evidence that the law-enforcement response to the attack at Robb Elementary was an abject failure and antithetical to everything we have learned over the last two decades since the Columbine massacre."
He continued:
"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."
Spokespeople for the Uvalde police have also been accused of making misleading statements regarding their response to the shooting. On May 25, McCraw had claimed that authorities immediately engaged with the alleged gunman, though surveillance footage suggests otherwise.
As more footage was leaked of the incident, netizens only became further outraged at the officers, claiming that they had sufficient support and shouldn't have waited as long as they did.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, as of July 2022, the US has seen more than 300 mass shootings.
