Not all police videos from the 2022 school massacre in Uvalde, Texas, were released to news organizations under court orders, police said Wednesday, announcing an internal investigation to determine why the material was not discovered until after a large amount of footage was released over the weekend.
A large collection of audio and video recordings of the hesitant police response to Robb Elementary School, where a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers in a fourth-grade classroom, was released by city officials on Saturday, after a lengthy legal battle with the Associated Press and other news organizations.
It was not immediately clear what the unreleased video shows. The department discovered “several additional videos” after a Uvalde officer said some of his body camera footage from the May 24, 2022, shooting was not included in the originally released footage, the city said in a statement.
The statement said an internal investigation would clarify “how this oversight occurred,” who was responsible and whether disciplinary action was necessary.
“The community and public of Uvalde deserve nothing less,” Uvalde Police Chief Homer Delgado said in the statement.
The unreleased video was turned over to the office of Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell for review.
Jesse Rizo, who lost his niece Jacklyn Cazares in the shooting, said the news of the missing video was disappointing and a slap in the face to a fragile trust system. But he said he was glad the police chief was so open-minded and hoped the investigation resulted in consequences.
“Anyone who has made a mistake must be given a clear message that these mistakes are not tolerable,” Rizo said.
The Associated Press and other news organizations filed suit after authorities initially refused to release the information. The massacre was one of the worst school massacres in U.S. history.
The delayed police response to the shooting was widely condemned as a massive failure: Nearly 400 officers waited more than 70 minutes before confronting the gunman in a classroom full of dead and injured children and teachers. Victims’ families have long sought accountability for the slow police response in the south Texas city of about 15,000 residents, 80 miles west of San Antonio.
Nearly 150 Border Patrol agents and 91 state troopers, as well as school and city police officers, responded to the shooting. While terrified students and teachers called 911 from classrooms, dozens of officers stood in the hallway, trying to decide what to do. Desperate parents gathered outside the building begged them to go inside.
Some of the 911 calls released over the weekend were from frightened teachers. One described “lots and lots of gunshots,” while another sobbed into the phone as a dispatcher urged her to stay calm. “Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry!” the first teacher shouted before hanging up.
