Video taken inside Uvalde schools raises more questions about police inaction
As video taken inside Robb Elementary School puts in full view the bewildering inaction by law enforcement during the May slaughter of 19 children and two teachers, some in Uvalde are shouting: Will police face consequences?
But it is unclear whether the actions – or inaction – by officers in the school on May 24 will result in more than criticism, even as demands for accountability and anger mount. City and state leaders have urged people to let investigations play out. The footage from a hallway camera inside the school shows the gunman entering the building with an AR-15-style rifle and includes 911 tape of a teacher screaming, “Get down! Get in your rooms! Get in your rooms!”
It is a starkly different scene than the one described by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott the day after shooting, when he praised a swift response and officers who “showed amazing courage by running toward gunfire.” Abbott later said he was given wrong information but did not identify from whom. Former U.S. Attorney Joe Brown, who spent two decades as a Republican district attorney in North Texas, said there is “no criminal statute for dereliction of duty” and holding police criminally liable under such circumstances “carries a tremendous social cost.” But he said officers who fail to meet their “moral duty to intervene” could still face ridicule or firing.
A Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman said no troopers who were there have been suspended. Officials with the Uvalde police and sheriff’s office did not answer questions about whether any of their officers have been suspended or placed on leave.