A police officer who responded to the Uvalde school mass shooting was captured using hand sanitizer as fellow cops stood back for more than an hour while a gunman fired into classrooms.
The bizarre act was revealed in a 77-minute video clip leaked by the Austin-American Statesman on Tuesday, that has sparked more anger and disbelief at police inaction during the Robb Elementary School massacre.
In the surveillance footage, cops are seen arriving in the school hallway minutes after Salvador Ramos, 18, begins a rampage that eventually killed 19 students and two teachers.
An unnamed officer is seen using a hand sanitizer dispenser more than 45 minutes into the law enforcement response. Wearing a helmet, protective vest and a plaid shirt, the cop appears to pump the dispenser three times, then wipes his hands together. He is also spotted looking at his cell phone.
The clip from the morning of May 24 drew intense backlash on social media.
Shannon Watts, founder of the gun violence prevention group Moms Demand Action, tweeted that the Statesman published a video ‘which shows police in ballistics gear waiting around in a school hallway and EVEN STOPPING TO GET HAND SANITIZER while children and educators were slaughtered’.
Former Ohio congressional candidate Nina Turner similarly tweeted: ‘Cops in Uvalde checked their phones and got hand sanitizer while children were massacred. My God.’
Meanwhile, Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips tweeted that he ‘would love to hear from this Uvalde cop why he was worried about putting on hand sanitizer while a shooter was massacring kids twenty feet down the hall’.
Phillips later added that he heard speculation that the officer could have been using hand sanitizer to dry his skin so his gun would not slip his grip, or that he may have been a medic.
It remains unclear which agency the officer worked for, as well as his identity.
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