UVALDE, Texas – Uvalde County on Tuesday released a trove of public records related to the Robb Elementary massacre, including video that showed the chaotic moment officers breached the door and killed the 18-year-old gunman.
The release followed a three-year long legal battle with KSAT 12 News and other media outlets who sued the county, City of Uvalde and Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District (UCISD) in 2022 for these records to be made public.
>> Uvalde County releases video, emails and more records from Robb Elementary shooting
UCISD released emails, Texas Public Information Act requests from reporters and student records about the 18-year-old gunman on Monday. The City of Uvalde released body camera footage and recordings of 911 calls in August 2024.
The county records include 1,576 pages of emails, text messages and other documents as well as nearly seven hours worth of footage from May 24, 2022.
Body-worn camera footage released on Tuesday provided another view of the chaos that unfolded after the gunman entered the school and made his way into two adjoining classrooms — and the agonizingly slow response from nearly 400 officers that followed.
Two teachers and 19 students died in the shooting.
>> ‘About time’: Family members react to release of records from Robb Elementary School shooting
Officers did not breach the door and kill the gunman until approximately 77 minutes after the first officers arrived at the school, even as students inside the classrooms called 911.
Here are the takeaways from Tuesday’s release.
Footage shows aftermath of shooter’s attack on grandmother
Before the gunman went to the elementary school, authorities said he had shot his grandmother, identified as Celia “Sally” Gonzales, at a home at around 11:21 a.m.
When deputies arrived on the scene, a portion of Gonzales’ face was covered in blood, as well as other areas of her body.
In the footage, a deputy was heard asking Gonzales, “Who did this to you?” and “Who’s your grandson?”
Deputies were heard requesting EMS units as Gonzales exited the home while holding a towel to her face to treat the injury.
One of the deputies grabbed Gonzales’ arm and guided her to the front of the home while urging her to keep pressure on the wound. As she was assisted, Gonzales said, “I don’t know where he’s at.”
There were at least four units with the Uvalde County Sheriff’s Office on scene when Gonzales was guided to the front of the home.
The deputy wearing the bodycam asked, “What do you want us to do?” Another deputy replied, “I think we got an officer down as well now.”
The deputy wearing the bodycam immediately left and drove to Robb Elementary School.
The shooter entered the school at around 11:33 a.m.
Dozens of officers milled around before confronting shooter
Multiple bodycam videos showed officers from various departments both inside the hallway and outside the elementary school.
Some officers proposed using gas through the window or finding a key to the supposedly locked classroom. In the videos, it’s unclear which agency was in charge of the situation.
UCISD Police Chief Pete Arredondo was believed to be the incident commander since the shooting happened on school property.
In one video, Arredondo is heard trying to negotiate with the shooter at 11:59 a.m.
“Sir, this is Arredondo with the school district police. Can you please put your firearm down? We don’t want anyone else hurt, sir,” Arredondo said off-camera. “These are innocent children, sir.”
Arredondo continued asking the shooter to communicate with him.
He was also heard asking for a master key to the classroom where the shooter holed himself up. Authorities have previously said it is inconclusive whether the door was locked or not.
At around 12:10 p.m., an officer is heard telling Arredondo that he can break a window to gain entry to the classroom, but Arredondo told him not to do it.
Gunshots from inside the school could be heard at 12:21 p.m.
“He’s shooting. He’s shooting,” an officer was heard saying on camera.
At 12:23 p.m., an officer off-camera was heard telling the gunman to put his gun down in English and Spanish. “We don’t want anybody else hurt.”
After 12:30 p.m., more officers were seen entering the hallway.
“This is not good,” an officer said. “We just need to go in.”
More commands to the shooter could be heard at 12:37 p.m. before officers ultimately breached the door at around 12:50 p.m.
Arredondo was fired in the months after the shooting and was later indicted for failing to protect children. Arredondo and Adrian Gonzales, another former Uvalde school district officer, are the only responding officers who face criminal charges for their actions on that day.
Body-worn cameras show moment officers breach the door
“You ready to catch somebody?” a law enforcement officer asked minutes before a small group of Border Patrol agents entered the room and killed the gunman.
In the videos, officers are seen carrying victims from the classroom. Some of them screamed for help, as paramedics with gurneys move in.
The county blurred victims in the footage.
“Watch the kids,” officers were heard yelling. “EMT, medic...”
“Where’s the suspect?” one officer asked. “He’s dead,” another replied.
“There’s a lot of blood in there,” an officer was heard saying.
Minutes after the room was breached, it appeared U.S. Border Patrol’s Tactical Unit (BORTAC) and paramedics told everyone who wasn’t a medic to move out.
“Yeah, come on, guys,” Arredondo was heard telling people.
Father of student, husband of teacher seen in hallway
Ruben Ruiz, the husband of teacher Eva Mireles in addition to Felix Rubio, the father of Lexi Rubio, were law enforcement officers who responded to the shooting. They were seen on video walking through the hallway.
Ruiz worked with Uvalde CISD police and Rubio was a Uvalde County Sheriff’s deputy.
“Ruben! Ruben!” multiple officers were heard yelling at Ruiz as he tried to go inside the classroom while victims were being carried out.
“My wife’s in there,” Ruiz told the officer. It’s unclear if Ruiz was escorted out of the building due to blurring and obstructions in the video.
Rubio was off-duty at the time but rushed to the school after he heard about the shooting.
Rubio was seen in the hallway before officers breached the door and while victims were being carried out.
Outside the school, Rubio is seen on the phone. He told someone to go to the high school to check if his daughter is there.
“I just want to see my daughter,” Rubio told fellow officers. Officers insisted on taking him to an office as they escorted him away from the school.
“I promise you... I’ll find an answer,” an officer told him.
“I just want to see my baby,” Rubio said.
‘My daughter is in there’: Parents plead with officers
Desperate parents begged law enforcement officers to storm the elementary school in the minutes after the gunman entered the school, videos show.
“Whose class is he in?” one parent was heard asking.
“Come on man, my daughter is in there!” another parent came up and yelled.
Within minutes, parents made their way to a fence near the school and yelled at officers to do something.
One parent angrily said, “Either you go in, or I’m going in bro,” adding a few seconds later. “My kids are in there, bro. ... Please!”
Deputies went to shooter’s home months before attack
Documents released on Monday by Uvalde CISD offered the most detailed look yet at the gunman whose downward spiral began in middle school with a series of suspensions and warnings for harassment and bullying.
He dropped out of school just months before the shooting.
>> Robb Elementary teen gunman’s school records marked by repeated discipline problems, poor attendance
Sheriff’s deputies went to the gunman’s home on two consecutive nights in February 2022 because he was arguing with his mother over Wi-Fi and broken video game equipment after she turned off the internet, according to county records released on Tuesday.
Adriana Reyes said her son never hit her but told deputies she was scared of him and needed help, a report said. Ramos’ grandmother picked him up one night, and deputies drove him there the next night.
Background
The county released its records hours after Uvalde CISD shared its portion of the records.
The records released Tuesday are the final batch of documents that local authorities withheld during a yearslong legal battle over public access. Family members of the victims were among those pushing for the records to be released.
Last month, a state appeals court judge sided with KSAT and other media organizations in a 2022 lawsuit against the district and county seeking the release of their records related to the mass shooting.
Haynes Boone Media Law Chair Laura Prather, the law firm representing KSAT 12 News and other media outlets, sent KSAT the following statement on Monday evening.
“More than three years after the Robb Elementary School shooting, the release of long-withheld public records by the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District is an important step toward giving the community the answers they deserve,” Prather said in a statement, in part.
UCISD notified families of the victims about the impending release on Friday, Aug. 8, according to a letter reviewed by KSAT Investigates.
“This step is taken with the utmost respect and commitment to building trust and transparency within our school community,” according to the district’s letter.
The district released the following letter to the community on Aug. 8:
Dear Uvalde CISD School Community, We wish to inform you about important developments concerning the records of the tragic events that unfolded on May 24, 2022, at Robb Elementary School. Our district’s law firm, Walsh Gallegos, is releasing these records to the media outlets that initiated the lawsuit, with the release scheduled for the week of August 11, 2025.
Information has been communicated to our district’s law firm, indicating that the County is set to release records pertaining to the events of May 24, 2022, to media outlets next week. These records may include video footage. This decision to release the records is made with the most profound respect for our school community and is part of our ongoing commitment to building trust and ensuring transparency. We have pledged to inform our families and the greater Uvalde school community about the release of these documents before they are made available to the media, and this notice serves to uphold that promise.
We recognize the profound impact this tragedy continues to have on everyone involved—our students, families, staff, and the entire Uvalde school community. As we journey through the process of healing and rebuilding, the district remains dedicated to offering support and maintaining transparency.
Please know that we stand by each school community member, ready to support, heal, and rebuild together.
Respectfully, The Uvalde CISD Board of Trustees and Ashley Chohlis
The response to the shooting and the handling of the investigation have been heavily scrutinized, with the Department of Justice finding “cascading failures” in law enforcement’s handling of the massacre.
Gloria Cazares, whose daughter Jackie was killed in the shooting, explained why she wanted the records to be released during a school board meeting last month.
“It’s about making sure what happens to my daughter never happens to another child,” Cazares said at the meeting. “I’m here today to demand the truth. You all owe it to Jackie, to her classmates, to her teachers.”
The City of Uvalde was the first agency to release its records from the shooting in 2024 after it was sued by media outlets. A Uvalde police sergeant retired after he was placed on leave for failing to include additional videos in the initial release.
The Texas Department of Public Safety has yet to release its records from the shooting. KSAT 12 News and other news organizations have asked a state appeals court to order the agency to make the records public.
Read more reporting on the KSAT Investigates page.
More recent Robb Elementary coverage on KSAT: