Uvalde Officer Spotted Checking Phone With Punisher Lock Screen During Shooting

New footage of the Uvalde school shooting was released on Tuesday (12 July) which shows the police’s slow response in alarming detail.

Twitter users were quick to pick up on one detail in particular, criticising the fact that an officer is seen checking his phone while standing in the hallway outside the classroom where 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos opened fire on elementary school children on 24 May.

What’s more, the officer was seen to have a Punisher background on his phone, which social media users thought was ironic seeing as the character in the TV series is an ex-marine-turned-vigilante. One person tweeted in response: “If the punisher was real he’d hunt down all these MFers for letting kids die.” Watch the clip below:

They added: “Love that they think of themselves as some badass symbols of justice though. All this guy did was casually check his phone while gunfire went off to the cries of children. Very badass.”

Newspapers in Texas released the footage at the beginning of the week. Spanning 77 minutes, the excruciatingly slow response of officers on the scene is highlighted, with law enforcement officials standing in the hallway for over an hour - despite gunshots going off - before entering the classroom and killing Ramos. 

Another social media user tweeted in response to the clip: "This really makes my blood boil. This officer is checking his phone while kids & teachers are literally dying a few doors down. And if it this couldn’t get any worse, his screensaver is the Punisher skull with a thin blue line.”

A third added: “The cop at #Uvalde holding back and checking his phone, which features an American flag punisher background, is the perfect summation of modern day American policing.”

“That cop in Uvalde having his lock screen be the punisher logo and him being scared to take on an active shooter is truly the perfect encapsulation of how cops see themselves vs who they really are,” penned a fourth.

Last month, police chief Pedro Arredondo was blamed for the police force's delay in confronting the gunman and was placed on leave. 

The director of the Texas Department of Public Safety called Arredondo’s response to the shooting an ‘abject failure’.

Superintendent Dr Hal Harrell announced he would be excusing Arredondo of his duties in a press release published on 22 June.

Harrell wrote in part: “From the beginning of this horrible event, I shared that the district would wait until the investigation was complete before making personnel decisions.

“Today, I am still without details of the investigations being conducted by various agencies. Because of the lack of clarity that remains and the unknown timing of when I will receive the results of the investigations, I have made the decision to place Chief Arredondo on administrative leave effective this date.”

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