NEW YORK (AP) – Two media outlets’ decision to post an unbearable 77-minute video this week showing police inaction during the Robb Elementary School mass shooting sparked a harsh response from residents of Uvalde, Texas , although they have been looking for this kind of transparency for weeks.
The families of the 19 children and two teachers killed by an 18-year-old gunman on May 24 said Austin American-Statesman and KVUE-TV showed insensitivity in broadcasting the video to the public before those directly affected had a chance to see ‘l.
The surveillance video released Tuesday, which was later shown and written by other news organizations, captures the gunman entering the school and includes audio of shots fired from inside a classroom. It shows police quickly entering the school and then walking down a hallway for more than an hour before they finally kill the gunman.
The community’s response reflects the raw feelings directed at journalists who came to Uvalde to investigate what happened, and the reality that journalism often sets foot.
The committee of the Texas House of Representatives investigating the police response to the shooting had planned to show the images this Sunday to relatives and then make them known to the public. The committee is still holding a closed-door session with residents that day to discuss the conclusion of its investigation.
“We’re blinded by a leak,” said Angel Garza, whose daughter Amerie Jo, 10, was killed by Robb, according to CNN, which covered the appearance of some family members this week in an event in Washington. “Who do you think you are to post images like that of our children who can’t even speak for themselves, but want to move on and convey their last moments to the whole world? What makes you think it’s okay? “
Kimberly Rubio told the Washington event that she understood the need to hold officials accountable, but that she did not want to hear the sound of gunfire that day. His daughter, 10-year-old Lexi, was killed.
Although he does not agree with how the investigation has been managed, the mayor of Uvalde, Don McLaughlin, described the publication of the video as unprofessional.
“There was no reason for families to see it,” McLaughlin said. “They needed to watch the video, but they didn’t need to see the gunman come in or hear the shots.”
The media have said they contacted relatives before posting the video, although it was unclear how many they reached or what the response was. The American-Statesman referred a journalist to a column written by Manny Garcia, the newspaper’s executive editor, which did not address the issue. KVUE news director Christina Ginn did not respond to calls for comment.
On social media, Ginn retweeted a comment from another reporter saying police may have shared the video with families. Journalists have been calling for his release for weeks, as the police response is the focus of the investigation.
Before the video was released, the outlets edited the sound of the screams. The image of a child in the hallway who saw the gunman and quickly rushed to a safe place, was blurred to protect his privacy.
During its first broadcast of the video, KVUE said Tony Plohetski, a journalist working for both the newspaper and the television station, had seen the video for the first time two weeks earlier.
They set out to stay behind until the video was officially released. “The problem with this is that the authorities have constantly, from day one, failed the people of Uvalde,” Plohetski told CNN. He declined further comment to The Associated Press.
“Truth always wins,” Garcia wrote in his message to readers of American statisticians, “maybe not on our watch, but truth always prevails.”
The media could have waited until next week, but they would not have acted in the best interest of the public, said Kelly McBride, a journalism ethics expert at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies. In this case, the video had a clear and strong informative value, he said.
It is often difficult to make a journalistic decision for the general public without disturbing a small group of people.
While family members are important protagonists in the story, “we’re talking about a much broader interest group, and that’s the public that believes police officers will act in their best interest. You can see clearly this is not happening, ”he said.
___
Associated Press journalist Acacia Coronado contributed to this report from Uvalde, Texas.