UVALDE, Texas — Three hours of edited police bodycam video show the chaos and confusion from the time the first Uvalde officers arrived at Robb Elementary to the moment the gunman was finally killed.
According to the Texas House committee investigating the mass shooting, 376 law enforcement officers from several agencies showed up at the school but no one took charge.
We are posting the video in its entirely to provide transparency for the public to see the law enforcement response at Robb Elementary on May 24, 2022.
The videos from the officers' perspective were released by Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin on Sunday, nearly two months after the mass shooting.
WARNING: Some may find these videos disturbing
UPD Sgt. Eduardo Canales
Sgt. Canales was one of three officers who ran down the hallway toward the classroom where the suspect and victims were.
His camera shows the moment the gunman shot at them. They quickly backed away to the other end of the hallway.
"Am I bleeding? Am I bleeding?" Canales asks other officers, apparently thinking he's been hit.
"That's my wife's classroom," UCISD Officer Ruben Ruiz could be heard saying. His wife, Eva Mireles, was one of the teachers killed by the gunman.
Canales goes outside to report the shots fired.
"Dude, we gotta get in there. He keeps shooting. We gotta get in there," he said before going back inside.
- KHOU 11's Michelle Homer
WATCH: Sgt. Canales' bodycam
UPD Officer Justin Mendoza
Officer Justin Mendoza hears gunshots as he is approaching the school in this hour-long video.
"Shots fired in the building, I heard someone got shot in the head!" Mendoza radios. "[Profanities] Hey, are we going in or are we staying here? What are we doing? [More profanities]
One officer can be heard on the phone telling someone, "I love you. We have an active shooter at the school."
"I hope this guy didn't shoot any kids, bro," Mendoza says after he and other law enforcement officers enter the building.
Mendoza moving through the school and searching classrooms as more law enforcement officers continue to pour into the building.
When he goes back outside, the 911 dispatcher relays that a child called from one of the classrooms and said it was "full of victims.
- KHOU 11's Michelle Homer
WATCH: Officer Mendoza's bodycam
RELATED: 'We gotta get in there' | Uvalde PD body camera paints picture of chaos from multiple agencies
UPD Sgt. Daniel Coronado
In his footage, Coronado can be heard running toward a wing of the school where the suspect may have entered the building and yelling at his fellow officers to be careful: “He might be in that building… They’re saying he is possibly in the building.”
Seconds later, he says he hears shots fired and yells at his fellow officers to “Get inside!” Upon entering the building, several more shots ring out. With a number of officers already in place near the classroom, Coronado steps outside the school exit and works the phone. He describes the suspect as “contained,” describes the suspect’s position in the building and says that the suspect is believed to be barricaded in one of the offices.
The video later shows Coronado and fellow officers breaking and yanking open windows to pull students and teachers from several classrooms.
It also shows Uvalde CISD Chief Pete Arredondo troubled by an inability to get a master key to the school classrooms. At one point, Chief Arredondo is seen with a key ring, trying but failing to open a classroom with a number of keys on it. Frustrated, Chief Arredondo admits about 45 minutes after first shots are fired that “people are gonna ask what’s taking so long.”
Arredondo then suggests that his officers “breach through those windows and shoot [the suspect’s] head off.” Shortly before officers storm the classroom, and more than an hour after police enter the building, Arredondo can also be heard saying of the door to the classroom that the shooter is in, “That door, I bet you, is unlocked.” -- WFAA's Mark Smith
WATCH: Sgt. Coronado's bodycam
UPD Officer Jesus Mendoza
In his bodycam footage, Mendoza can be seen running toward the school, and telling his fellow officers to duck and cover.
It’s clear that he knows shots were fired in the building, and that someone was shot in the head.
He and other officers ask if they should go inside – and, at 11:36 am, he and other officers approach the building with guns drawn. They later determine the shooter has an assault rifle.
At 11:41 am, Mendoza enters the hallway after a few other law enforcement officials have done the same. He stands at the end of the hallway before going back outside to grab a rifle from a coworker. Upon his return inside, he speaks to an officer who can be heard saying, “The classroom is my wife’s classroom.” We now know that to be officer Ruben Ruiz, victim Eva Mireles’s husband.
He and about a dozen police then quietly wait in the hallway before going into other classrooms to make sure everyone else is evacuated.
Part of the video is muted before a child runs out of the bathroom. -- WFAA's Tiffany Liou
WATCH: Officer Mendoza's bodycam
Lt. Javier Martinez
In his bodycam footage, Martinez is mostly seen directing traffic around the perimeter of the shooting scene.
When he arrives at one of the intersections needing help, he makes contact with a border patrol agent, who describes Geraldine Street as a “law enforcement log-jam” and says that they “need to create a path in case we need to get an armored vehicle or EMS.”
The agent can be heard telling Martinez that officers need to prevent parents from entering Geraldine Street, and that he should coordinate with other law enforcement to ensure they also aren’t blocking the way in for other law enforcement vehicles that may need to approach the scene.
Over his radio, Martinez later hears a 911 dispatcher say they have the shooter’s uncle on the phone and that the uncle was “requesting to assist to try and talk [the suspect] down.”
Shortly thereafter, officers can be heard on the radio saying a subject is in custody – information Martinez shares with other officers at the intersection, then later reiterates.
At the end of the bodycam clip, a man in tears can be seen asking Martinez if he knows anything about the situation. Martinez says he doesn’t know anything yet. -- WFAA's Alex Cruz
WATCH: Lt. Martinez's bodycam
UPD Officer Randy Hill
Hill's video, just under a minute long, shows him arriving at the school and taking cover behind another patrol unit. It does not include video inside the school. - KHOU 11's Michelle Homer
WATCH: Officer Randy Hill's bodycam
UPD Officer Zamora
In his footage, Zamora can be seen entering the home of the shooter as the voice of a woman shouting can be heard in the background.
He goes to the backyard with other law enforcement officials, then goes back in the house and conducts a search. At 1:48 pm, officers tell a woman, who seems to be a relative of the suspect, that they are holding the scene and nobody is allowed in or out. The woman is can be heard crying, and saying she knew they were there for her nephew, who she’d heard say he didn’t want to live anymore.
Zamora walks then toward the yard and tells another officer he saw blood in the hallway of the house, but that he confirmed there were no bodies inside.
The shooter’s grandmother is then transported to the hospital. -- WFAA's Tiffany Liou
WATCH: Officer Zamora's bodycam
