SAN ANTONIO — A Uvalde police officer's body camera caught responders restrain school policeman Ruben Ruiz moments after his wife, a teacher, told him she'd been shot.
Thousands of people have already watched the video on Reddit and Twitter. Texas Department of Public Safety head Steve McCraw told lawmakers that other officials took Ruiz's gun and escorted the four-year department veteran away from the building.
Ruiz, among the first lawmen to arrive at Robb Elementary, has already endured intense scrutiny. Social media users slammed him for checking his phone about thirty seconds after he entered the school building.
Those critics did not hear Ruiz tell another responder "that's my wife's classroom" a minute later.
Eva Mireles taught fourth grade in room 112, likely the second class the gunman entered. A number of cameras caught glimpses of Ruiz on the phone, likely trying to contact his wife.
At some point, the two connected. Mireles told Ruiz she was dying, McCraw said.
Ruiz's plea was among the first indications victims were alive in the classroom with the shooter. Even after restraining the school policeman, other law enforcement waited nearly an hour to barge in the classroom.
Citing video not publicly released, the New York Times reports that law enforcement killed the gunman and carried Mireles, alive, out of her classroom.
She reportedly reached an ambulance but died before reaching the hospital.