Texas Governor Greg Abbott had initially praised the police’s handling of the shooting and said they showed “amazing courage”, before admitting he had been misled about the police response.
Texas State Senator Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat, said the leaked video had been edited.
“It doesn’t really show the entire picture,” he told CNN. “The Republicans simply don’t want to show what we are really talking about, which is the awesome power of this AR-15,” referring to the weapon used by the gunman.
Parents of some Uvalde victims were in Washington, DC, on Tuesday to meet with lawmakers.
“It’s just never-ending pain,” said Kimberly Rubio, whose 10-year-old daughter was killed.
“THEIR FINAL MOMENTS”
Before the video’s publication, Texas State Representative Dustin Burrows, who chairs a committee that is holding hearings on the shooting, had planned to lead a private briefing on Sunday for the families of the Uvalde victims.
The session would have allowed them to see the surveillance video before it was made public and to discuss the committee’s preliminary report before the release of the information.
Those plans were upended by the newspaper’s publication on Tuesday.
“Who do you think you are to release footage like that of our children who can’t even speak for themselves, but you want to go ahead and air their final moments to the entire world?” said Angel Garza, whose daughter was killed in the shooting.
The newspaper said it published the video because its goal “is to continue to bring to light what happened at Robb Elementary, which the families and friends of the Uvalde victims have long been asking for”.
