Uvalde mayor blames ‘chicken’ media for releasing shooting video before families had viewed it

The 77-minute video shows heavily criticised police response to May attack

The mayor of Uvalde has branded the media “chicken” for releasing footage of the mass shooting at an elementary school in which 19 students and two teachers were massacred.

Mayor Don McLaughlin attacked The Austin American-Statesman and TV station KVUE for showing Robb Elementary School surveillance video of the May shooting.

“I want to go on the record. The way that video was released today was one of the most chicken things I’ve ever seen,” Mr McLaughlin told a city council meeting on Tuesday.

Another city council member, Ernest King, also slammed the media who released it as “chickens***.”

The decision to make the footage public has also been attacked by the families of victims who had not been able to view it first.

“This video needed to be released, but the families should’ve gotten to see it first,” added Mr McLaughlin.

In the video police officers can be seen huddled in a corridor outside the classroom where the shootings took place.

Law enforcement has been widely denounced for their decision not to storm the classroom and take out the gunman, with a border patrol tactical team eventually taking him out.

Uvalde school district police chief, Pete Arrendono, has been placed on leave amid intense criticism of his performance as on-scene commander on 24 May.

When Mr King attacked the release, a member of the audience at the meeting, asked him “What about the cops? Are they chickens***?” Mr King replied that the council would “handle that.”

The previously unseen 77-minute video shows events leading up to the gunman entering the school at around 11.33am, moments after crashing his truck outside.

The footage continues for an hour as law enforcement officers filled the hallway outside classrooms 111 and 112, but not ultimately confronting the shooter for one hour and 14 minutes after the first police officer arrived at the scene.

The newspaper has defended releasing the footage in an editorial written by executive editor Manny Garcia.

“Our goal is to continue to bring to light what happened at Robb Elementary, which the families and friends of the Uvalde victims have long been asking for,” Mr Garcia wrote.

And he added: “We have to bear witness to history, and transparency and unrelenting reporting is a way to bring change.”