A cop who responded to the Uvalde school shooting massacre was captured on camera bizarrely using hand sanitizer as officers hung around the school’s hallway for over an hour before taking down the killer.
The oddly-timed cowardly act, revealed in the footage first obtained by the Austin-American Statesman, only fueled the anger directed at the cops who responded to the mass shooting that killed 21 people.
The 77-minute clip shows officers charge Robb Elementary School minutes after the rampage began, but then they stopped and didn’t confront the gunman for more than an hour even as Salvador Ramos shot and killed 19 students and two staffers.
One of the cops was seen using the hand sanitizer dispenser more than 45 minutes into law enforcement’s response.
Social media users roundly condemned the act while expressing particular shock and disgust at the unnamed officer, in a helmet and vest, who seemed to pump the dispenser three times before wiping his hands together. He was also seen looking at his phone.
“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,” tweeted Cabot Phillips, a senior editor as the Daily Wire, a conservative outlet.
Phillips later tweeted he heard speculation he could be a medic or was using the sanitizer to dry his skin out so his gun didn’t slip in his hands.
Kayce Smith, a Barstool Sports media personality, called the footage of the lingering cops “revolting.”
“so let me get this straight. Uvalde officers were inside within five minutes, stood around for over an hour, made sure to get HAND SANITIZER … while still hearing rounds being fired and the kids screaming,” she tweeted. “What the F— are we doing here?? This is revolting.”
Shannon Watts, founder of gun violence prevention group Moms Demand Action, in a tweet reported the Statesman just published footage of the mass shooting response, “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.”
“Cops in Uvalde checked their phones and got hand sanitizer while children were massacred,” former Ohio congressional candidate and Bernie Sanders ally Nina Turner tweeted. “My God.”
It’s unclear who the officer is or what agency he works for, but the surveillance footage backs up reports that local and state officers failed to take quick action to stop the bloodshed.
“I can’t believe an officer actually got hand sanitizer while the gunman was killing kids,” Omaha-based news anchor Jonah Gilmore tweeted in part.
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And CNN correspondent Dianne Gallagher tweeted, “Roughly an hour into this Uvalde Robb elementary school video… the officer wearing a helmet and ballistic vest casually getting a *squirt of hand sanitizer* in the hall while the gunman was still inside a classroom with teachers and dozens of fourth graders… my God.”
