Videos and 911 calls from Uvalde school massacre released by officials after legal fight

Uvalde documents, 911 calls released

After more than two years, documents, audio and video recordings and 911 calls connected to the May 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, have been released. FOX's C.B. Cotton has more.

DALLAS - Police videos and 911 calls from the 2022 Uvalde, Texas, school massacre, which left 19 students and two teachers dead, were released Saturday by city officials after a prolonged legal fight.

The release of the records came in response to a lawsuit brought by The Associated Press and other news organizations after Uvalde officials refused to publicly release documents related to the shooting at Robb Elementary School.

The delayed law enforcement response — nearly 400 officers waited more than 70 minutes before confronting the gunman in a classroom filled with dead and wounded children and teachers — has been widely condemned as a massive failure. The gunman killed 19 students and two teachers on May 24, 2022, one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history.

New Uvalde school shooting indictments

The first criminal charges have been filed over the law enforcement response to the Robb Elementary School shooting, more than two years after the deadly event. Former Uvalde CISD Police Chief Pete Arredondo and former officer Adrian Gonzales were arrested.

Multiple federal and state investigations into the slow response laid bare cascading problems in training, communication, leadership and technology, and questioned whether officers prioritized their own lives over those of children and teachers in the South Texas city of about 15,000 people 80 miles west of San Antonio. Families of the victims have long sought accountability for the slow police response.

Two of the responding officers now face criminal charges: Former Uvalde school Police Chief Pete Arredondo and former school officer Adrian Gonzales have pleaded not guilty to multiple charges of child abandonment and endangerment. A Texas state trooper in Uvalde who had been suspended was reinstated to his job earlier this month.

Uvalde school shooting: Two years later

Friday marks two years since a gunman entered Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, killing 19 children and two teachers.

Some of the families have called for more officers to be charged and filed federal and state lawsuits against law enforcement, social media, online gaming companies, and the gun manufacturer that made the rifle the gunman used.

The police response included nearly 150 U.S. Border Patrol agents and 91 state police officials, as well as school and city police. While dozens of officers stood in the hallway trying to figure out what to do, students inside the classroom called 911 on cellphones, begging for help, and desperate parents who had gathered outside the building pleaded with officers to go in. A tactical team eventually entered the classroom and killed the shooter.

Video from inside Uvalde school shows officers milling around hallway during massacre

Surveillance footage captured the gunman in the Uvalde school shooting enter the building with an AR-15 style rifle and later shows officers in body armor milling in the hallway outside the fourth-grade classrooms where 19 children and two teachers were killed.

Previously released video from school cameras showed police officers, some armed with rifles and bulletproof shields, waiting in the hallway.

A report commissioned by the city, however, defended the actions of local police, saying officers showed "immeasurable strength" and "level-headed thinking" as they faced fire from the shooter and refrained from firing into a darkened classroom.