Parents of the children murdered during the gun attack at Robb Elementary School in Texas lashed out at the leakage of a new surveillance video of the shooting incident that killed 21 individuals.
The Austin American-Statesman publication obtained the Texas School Shooting leaked video.
The parents expressed anger and frustration at the fact the footage of their children's final moments was seen by the public first before them, as per a CNN report.
Felicia Martinez, the mother of the 10-year-old victim Xavier James Lopez, said she and her fellow parents are "very angry" about the leakage.
"We are angry we are very angry. We want justice for our kids and this for be let out without us letting see it first. We are the parents that lost our children. We're supposed to do this together first. Not for the world. We are suffering," she said.
Martinez added: "I know the world is suffering too but these are our babies. Our babies that were taken from us. So to the person that leaked it, screw you! Screw you and that's coming from me, Felicia Martinez. From all of us, screw you!"
Angel Garza, father of Amerie Jo Garza, the 10-year-old girl who tried to call 911 when she was killed by gunman Salvador Ramos, 18, could not hide outrage for the lack of decency of the person behind the leakage.
Garza said: "Who in the hell do these people think they are? I don't care if you're DA, you're a spokesperson, you're a councilman, you're a senator. Who do you think you are to release footage like that of our children who can't even speak for themselves but you wanna go ahead and air their final moments to the entire world. What makes you think that's okay? The least you can do is have some freakin' decency for us. That is unacceptable."
Nikki Cross, Aunt of victim Uziyah Garcia, 10, burst into tears as she commented on the issue. She remarked that the leakage of the video brought back the pain of that horrific day to her.
"We've been asking DA for this video for a while and she refused for us to see it. So, once again, the world got to see it before us just like the day of the shooting when Governor Abbott announced to you all that our children were dead and we have no idea. So it's like re-living that day all over again and I am sick of it. I'm tired of it," Cross said.
Leaked Footage Confirms Poor Police Action
As reported earlier by HNGN, released camera footage from a corridor at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, shows how police handled an active shooter situation. One cop was seen in the video pausing to get hand sanitizer while the shooter was still on the loose.
The surveillance footage shows the gunman entering the primary school unhindered and immediately beginning to fire shots from his semi-automatic rifle outside the school building. Numerous persons made attempts to dial 911 to get the police to intervene right away.
Later, as he approaches classrooms 111 and 112, the shooter stops to peer over a bend in the hallway and tossed back his hair.
The shooter then bursts inside a school, prompting children to scream, and opens fire with his AR-15 rifle on the helpless victims. Three minutes had passed since the horrifying catastrophe began when three police officers entered the same hallway and hurriedly crouched before the classrooms. Then they swiftly retreated to the end of the hallway, just below a school security camera.
The 77-minute video of the Texas School Shooting depicts scores of sworn local, state, and federal officers traveling back and forth in the hallway despite fully armed, armored, wearing helmets, and some carrying protection shields.
Social Media Users Blast Uvalde Police
As theTexas School Shooting leaked video spread all over the internet, social media users commented on it, blasting the poor response of the police.
Eric Feigl-Ding, an epidemiologist and health economist, tweeted: "The gun-industry propaganda that "the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun" is completely destroyed by the shocking #Uvalde school videos - and by the testimony of these brave kids who watched the police do nothing for 77 minutes."
Reported Kayce Smith posted her comment on Twitter: "so let me get this straight. Uvalde officers were inside within 5 minutes, stood around for over an hour, and made sure to get HAND SANITIZER... while still hearing rounds being fired & the kids screaming? What the FUCK are we doing here?? This is revolting."
A user named Justin Hinze commented: "Keep in mind at this point children were wiping their classmates' blood on themselves to look dead while the police were busing keeping germs off of their hands. The shooting continued for another 20 minutes."
One user blasted the police saying, "They needed to wash their hands clean of the innocent children's blood on their hands...how symbolic."