Uvalde mayor disputes new report on school shooting; committee blocked from getting bodycam video

More than a month after the deadly school shooting in Uvalde, there is even more confusion and lack of clarity about the law enforcement response.

UVALDE, Texas - More than a month after the deadly school shooting in Uvalde, there is even more confusion and lack of clarity about the law enforcement response.

The Texas House committee investigating the incident is being blocked from obtaining school surveillance video they want to release to the public.

Earlier this week, a 26-page report by school security training experts identified missed chances to stop the gunman before he entered Robb Elementary.

The mayor of Uvalde is saying part of that recent report is false.

The findings are based on school surveillance video, body camera video, and testimony from officers.

One account comes from an unidentified on-scene investigator, who said a Uvalde police officer observed the suspect outside the school and trained his rifle on him, then declined to take the shot while waiting for supervisor approval.

In a rebuke of the report, Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin said: "No Uvalde police department officer saw the shooter on May 24 prior to him entering the school. No Uvalde police officers had any opportunity to take a shot at the gunman. A Uvalde Police Department officer saw someone outside, but was unsure of who he was and observed children in the area as well. Ultimately, it was a coach with children on the playground, not the shooter."

Fences are seen around Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on June 30, 2022. - Nineteen young children and two teachers were killed when a teenage gunman went on a rampage at Robb Elementary on May 24 in America's worst school shooting in a deca

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Those two specific but contradictory accounts fit a pattern of inconsistencies with the investigation.

McLaughlin, a Republican, has blamed a lack of transparency for the confusion, voicing frustration with the governor's office and Department of Public Safety.

"I contact them every day and don’t get a damn thing out of [DPS]," McLaughlin said in a June city council meeting. "Contacted the governor’s office too, I don’t get any information. I wonder who the hell is in charge of this investigation."

His most recent statement went on to say that "piecemeal information" is a "disservice to families who lost children or parents."

Investigations in the Texas House and Senate are ongoing.

In a tweet Friday, House Special Committee Chairman Dustin Burrows said he requested hallway surveillance video without audio be made available as part of the committee's preliminary report.

He said it didn’t show any video of violence.

In response, Texas DPS agreed that "...releasing this video would assist us in providing as much transparency as possible to the public without interfering with the investigation...We have communicated your request to Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell-Busbee. She has objected to releasing the video and has instructed us not to do so."

Last month, San Antonio State Senator Roland Gutierrez sued DPS. His district includes the city of Uvalde.

He appeared on FOX News to talk about how the media and his office are also being blocked from reviewing body camera video.

"We are getting half-truths, innuendo, and snippets of body cam video that [Steve McCraw] chooses to give, while at the same time, he sells the attorney general, seeks an exception from all of the media open records requests, suggesting that his body cameras on his officers should not be disclosed because we will learn some kind of secrets or trade secrets of weaknesses in their operation," Gutierrez said last month.

The DPS letter went on to say they are guided by the DA's professional judgement regarding the release of video.