Not all officer video from the the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting in 2022 was given to news organizations following a court order, police said Wednesday as they announced an internal investigation into why the material was not discovered until after a large trove of footage was released over the weekend.
A large collection of audio and video recordings from the hesitant police response at Robb Elementary School, where a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers inside a fourth-grade classroom, was released by city officials on Saturday following a prolonged legal fight with The Associated Press and other news organizations.
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It was not immediately clear what the unreleased video shows. The department discovered “several additional videos” after a Uvalde officer said a portion of his body camera footage from the May 24, 2022, shooting was not included in the original release of material, the city said in a statement.
The statement said an internal investigation will determine “how this oversight occurred," who was responsible and whether any disciplinary action is needed.
“The Uvalde community and the public deserve nothing less,” Uvalde Police Chief Homer Delgado said in the statement.
The unreleased video was turned over to the office of Uvalde District Attorney Christina Mitchell for review.
Jesse Rizo lost his niece, Jacklyn Cazares, in the shooting and said the news of the omitted video was disappointing and tears at a frail system of trust. But, he said he was pleased to know the police chief was forthcoming and hopes the investigation produces consequences.
“Anybody that was at fault, you’ve got to send a strong message that these mistakes are not tolerable,” Rizo said.
The Associated Press and other news organizations brought a lawsuit after the officials initially refused to publicly release the information. The massacre was one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history.
“The public has a right to know what happened on May 24, 2022, at Robb Elementary School and it is the job of the AP and other news organizations to bring those facts and the events of that day to light," said Julie Pace, AP's executive editor.
The delayed law enforcement response to the shooting has been widely condemned as a massive failure: Nearly 400 officers waited more than 70 minutes before confronting the gunman in a classroom filled with dead and wounded children and teachers. Families of the victims have long sought accountability for the slow police response in the South Texas city of about 15,000 people 80 miles (130 kilometers) west of San Antonio.
Nearly 150 U.S. Border Patrol agents and 91 state police officials, as well as school and city police, responded to the shooting. While terrified students and teachers called 911 from inside classrooms, dozens of officers stood in the hallway trying to figure out what to do. Desperate parents who had gathered outside the building pleaded with them to go in.
Some of the 911 calls released over the weekend were from terrified instructors. One described “a lot, a whole lot of gunshots,” while another sobbed into the phone as a dispatcher urged her to stay quiet. “Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry!” the first teacher cried before hanging up.