UVALDE, Texas – A Uvalde CISD officer seen looking at his phone in the surveillance video of the police response during the Robb Elementary School shooting has sparked outrage. However, according to one Texas legislator, it’s not what it looks like.
According to State Rep. Joe Moody, the officer who is seen in the newly-released surveillance video from inside of the school is Ruben Ruiz, the husband of Eva Mireles, one of two teachers who died in the shooting.
Ruiz was one of four officers who first entered the school on May 24 after a gunman charged inside and opened fire with an assault-style rifle on two adjoining classrooms -- 111 and 112.
Mireles had called her husband from inside her classroom, saying she “had been shot and was dying” after the gunman’s attack.
Texas Department of Public Safety Director Col. Steven McCraw said that Ruiz tried to save her, but was barred from doing so.
“And what happened to him, is he tried to move forward into the hallway,” McCraw said in his testimony. “He was detained and they took his gun away from him and escorted him off the scene.”
McCraw didn’t specify who detained Ruiz.
Moody said despite what’s surfaced in the video, he confirmed that Ruiz had tried to engage the shooter but was disarmed.
“I‘d not planned to speak publicly until the report was released, but I couldn’t say nothing seeing this man, who’s lost everything, maligned as if he was indifferent or actively malicious,” Moody said in a tweet. “...We’ll have much to say about the police response, but no criticism of this officer.”
This is the husband of teacher Eva Mireles, who contacted him on his phone from her classroom while he was on-scene to say that she’d been shot and was dying. 1/2#txlege #Uvalde pic.twitter.com/C7m64uBmaQ
— Joe Moody (@moodyforelpaso) July 13, 2022
I’d not planned to speak publicly until the report was released, but I couldn’t say nothing seeing this man, who’s lost everything, maligned as if he was indifferent or actively malicious. Context matters. 2/2
— Joe Moody (@moodyforelpaso) July 13, 2022
To those who haven’t bothered to read even the news that’s been reported in your rush to judgment, he attempted to engage but was removed from the building and disarmed. We’ll have much to say about the police response, but no criticism of this officer.
— Joe Moody (@moodyforelpaso) July 13, 2022
Nineteen students, in addition to the two teachers, also died in the school shooting.
A detailed report on the surveillance video that was leaked by the Austin American-Statesman and KVUE on Tuesday is expected to be released Sunday by a Texas House committee.
The video has sparked outrage among the shooting victims’ families due to its early release, and what it shows -- that officers waited in the hallway for 77 minutes before entering the classroom and killing the gunman.