Ubalde cop.checking his phone was waiting to hear from dying wife

[Demovictory9]

https://www.kbtx.com/2022/07/14/uvalde-police-officer-who-drew-outrage-checking-his-phone-was-waiting-hear-his-dying-wife-during-shooting/

After leaked surveillance of law enforcement responding to the Uvalde shooting was published earlier this week, angry snap judgments and criticisms of individual officers flooded the internet.

Media organizations and social media users were up in arms over an image pulled from the video posted by the Austin American-Statesman and KVUE-TV that showed a policeman glancing at his phone as the shooter, in two adjoining classrooms just down the hall, was killing children and teachers with a semiautomatic rifle.

“This really makes my blood boil,” Terrance Carroll, a former speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives, wrote in a tweet. “This officer is checking his phone while kids & teachers are literally dying a few doors down.”

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But to Uvalde residents and officials investigating the shooting, the footage showed something else. The officer depicted is Ruben Ruiz, whose wife, Eva Mireles, lay dying inside one of the classrooms with the gunman.

Mireles told Ruiz in a phone call that she had been shot. Ruiz, standing in the hallway with his pistol drawn, was unable to get to her. Other officers ultimately escorted Ruiz from the scene and took his gun. Mireles was alive when police transported her from the classroom, but she died before reaching the hospital.

[femmedem]

1. Thank you. Things aren't always as they appear even when you have video. n/t

[Spazito]

2. This is an important clarification...

thanks for posting it.

[intheflow]

3. Important to know, but still somehow makes it all worse.

His WIFE was being killed and his fellow officers removed him from the scene when he tried to go help her.

[LeftInTX]

9. They did the right thing

No one wants an unhinged cop going in.

That's one of the very few things they did right

[The Magistrate]

4. If This Was The Fella With A 'Punisher' Screen On His Phone

I do not give the north end of a south-bound rat.

[Demovictory9]

8. Yes..same guy

[LeftInTX]

10. Yes. He's a pretty red guy

[rsdsharp]

5. I'm sorry, but if I was in his situation -- an armed police officer

whose wife had been shot in a room fifty feet away from me — the phrase “unable to get to her” would not apply. The “heros” in the hall would have to render me physically incapable of movement in order to stop me. Restrain me (bring a lunch, gentlemen), render me unconscious, or shoot me, or I’m going to try.

[Crunchy Frog]

12. He did try and they did restrain him.

At least from what I've read.

[rsdsharp]

13. They disarmed him, and "led him out."

“We’ll, gee, if you say so, Clarence. I’ll just let my wife bleed out.”

They’d have had to drag me out in irons, and it would have taken a number of them to get me in them.

[snowybirdie]

6. So lets see

A sworn officer with a gun knows his wife is nearby and shot. But he waits in a hallway awaiting a phone call or some order from someone before rescuing her and getting her medical help. A coward just like the rest of them. They all should be fired.

[Jirel]

7. Nope, that makes him even worse scum.

His wife was dying in there, and he STILL did nothing. Cowardice on parade. “Sorry, honey, please text me. I won’t go try to save you before you bleed out. But I want to hear your last words, darling.”

[HAB911]

11. They all should be bagging groceries for a living

[The Revolution]

14. "Mireles was alive when police transported her...

...from the classroom, but she died before reaching the hospital."

Right, so maybe waiting an hour wasn't a great idea?

I don't care that much about individual actions that might look strange. People can behave somewhat bizarrely or do things that seem out of place in high stress situations, and that doesn't necessarily mean anything. But as a group, it's obvious this was a complete failure by the police. Whether it is cowardice, bad training, poor leadership and organization, or some combination, waiting definitely cost lives.

[ProfessorGAC]

15. As Others Have Said...

...this doesn't appear to be the vindication some think it is.
A cop, and his partners, were so terrified to do their job that the guy let his own wife die.
I'm not seeing how that makes him a wholly sympathetic character.