'Extreme and utter failure': Lawmakers, families react to release of new Uvalde shooting bodycam, 911 calls
AUSTIN (KXAN) -- It took 70 minutes before more than 400 officers confronted the gunman at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde more than two years ago. Nineteen children and two teachers died in the shooting on May 24, 2022. On Saturday, the city released new bodycam and 9-1-1 calls from that day.
"Everything that happened in Uvalde two years ago was extreme and utter failure of law enforcement," said Texas Sen. Roland Gutierrez. "There's no two ways about it."
Gutierrez spoke to KXAN after the release of new video, including the moment officers took down the shooter.
"Zero transparency yet, still, from the Department of Public Safety in the state of Texas, who have refused to show any of their documents, or any of their materials," Gutierrez said.
He added he has seen all of the material that has not yet been made public.
The release of body cam video and the frantic phone calls come after a years-long legal battle.
KXAN asked how families of the victims were doing, and how they respond to material like this being released. Gutierrez represents Uvalde in the state senate.
"You know, they're tired," Gutierrez explained. "They're tried of the drip, drip, drip of information that comes out in the whole event."
Brett Cross' nephew, Uziyah Garcia, who he cared for, was one of the victims.
"It's a complete slap in the face," Cross told the Associated Press in a phone interview. "They are spitting on our children's memories by continuing to play buddy-buddy with the officers that were involved."
A fight that is far from over from both Gutierrez and the families involved.
"The only thing these people have to look forward to is a duller sense of pain," Gutierrez added. "But, I think all of us in Texas, we just deserve so much more. Truly those families deserve much more. And the greatest thing is accountability."
"I'm disgusted that people are more worried about image and lawsuits than they are about the fact our children died that day," Cross said.
The massacre remains one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history.