New body cam footage released on Wednesday shows a Uvalde cop, with a gun in his hand, being stopped by other officers from storming the classroom where his schoolteacher wife lay dying. The disturbing new footage shows officer Ruben Ruiz, 43, trying to move through a group of fully armed cops, to save his wife Eva Mireles, who was shot dead in the mass shooting.
The cops are seen blocking Ruiz from moving toward the classroom before sending him back. Mireles, a special education teacher, along with another teacher, and 19 students were killed in a mass shooting inside Robb Elementary school, Uvalde, after gunman, Salvador Ramos, opened fire on May 24.
Helpless Husband, Brave Cop
The newly released body cam footage shows Ruiz making desperate efforts to move inside the classroom where Ramos was on a rampage. However, he is seen being held back by his colleagues, who are scared to go inside.
"Hey, hey, hey, Ruben, Ruben, Ruben, Ruben" someone offscreen is heard saying as fellow officers see Ruiz with his gun ready to defend his wife.
"She says she's shot, Johnny," Ruiz can be heard telling an officer, as another officer, all fully armed, pull the worried husband back away from the direction of the classroom with his arm around his neck and shoulder.
Off camera, his colleagues reportedly seized his gun in a bid to stop him from moving in. Ruiz was trying to somehow save his wife Mireles and the other students but had to hold back as other officers stopped him as they feared that Ramos would shoot them too.
Ruiz and Mireles had been married for decades before she was killed mercilessly along with 20 others in the mass shooting.
Police have since been criticized and termed as "cowards" for waiting for more than an hour to go inside the school and save those trapped inside the classroom. Although armed to their teeth, dozens of officers waited outside the school as they feared that they would get killed by the gunman.
Heartbroken Husband
Ruiz appeared to be looking at his phone in video footage that the Austin American-Statesman published earlier this month while the shooter was only down the hall. The video sparked a firestorm of outrage from lawmakers, social media users, and media outlets.
"This really makes my blood boil," former speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives Terrance Carroll tweeted. "This officer is checking his phone while kids & teachers are literally dying a few doors down."
It was later revealed that Mireles had contacted Ruiz from inside the classroom, where she was found to be mortally wounded, it was later discovered. Ruiz is seen checking his phone at 11:36 while standing, with his wife across the hallway from the classroom where the shooter had barricaded himself.
"She's in the classroom and he's outside. It's terrifying," the Uvalde County judge, Bill Mitchell told The New York Times.
"I don't know what was said,' he told the paper. 'He was talking to his wife."
Ruiz attempted to take against the shooter around 11:48, according to the timestamp on recent body cam footage. Director of the Texas Department of Public Safety Steve McCraw had told the Texas State Senate about the episode while giving his damning account of the police reaction.
We got an officer whose wife called him and said she'd been shot and she's dying. He tried to move forward into the hallway. He was detained, and they took his gun away from him and escorted him off the scene," he said.
Despite having more weapons and being outnumbered by the shooter, cops took 78 minutes to engage Ramos and shoot him.
The Texas House of Representatives has found that several of the injured would have lived if they had received medical attention sooner after reviewing the gunshot reaction.
