School police officer Ruben Ruiz, 43, was one of the first responders at Robb Elementary School — repeatedly alerting SWAT teams and officers that the shooter was in his wife Eva Mireles’ classroom. New dashcam footage now shows how he tried to push his way through a crowd of heavily armed fellow officers, who then stood in the hallway for 77 minutes before finally confronting the crazed gunman, Salvador Ramos. “Hey, Reuben, Reuben, Reuben, Reuben,” an officer says as the distraught school cop tries to push the group away, gun in hand. Ruiz begs them to let him pass as a policeman in a bulletproof vest puts his hand on his shoulder to stop him. Ruben Ruiz was one of the first to respond to Robb Elementary — and he repeatedly warned that the gunman was in his wife’s classroom. UCISD Police Department “He says he got shot, Johnny,” says Ruiz, who was seen checking his phone as he received alarming updates from his wife. Instead, another officer grabbed the struggling officer and turned him away from the flashpoint. “He was arrested and his gun was taken away and he was escorted off the scene,” Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw previously noted in testimony that decried the “gross failure” of the response. “Shooting—shooting! I can hear it clearly. It’s in my wife’s class!” Ruben Ruiz Speaking at a special state Senate hearing, McCraw explained how Ruiz immediately notified others that he “had a call from his wife,” who was “in room 112 and later passed away.” “He notes that he’s been shot — he’s talking about his wife,” McCraw said of the officer, who had recently conducted active shooter drills at Ramos’ own high school. The school police officer was seen checking his phone as he received disturbing updates from his wife, Eva Mireles.AP Footage that has already been released shows him at the school at 11:37 a.m., minutes after Ramos, 18, burst in and began slaughtering 19 children and two teachers. “It’s my wife’s class,” he was heard telling the SWAT commander who ran from the room after being shot. Another clip soon after caught him again pressing the urgency of breaking in and stopping the second-deadliest school shooting in US history. “Shooting—shooting! I can hear it clearly. It’s in my wife’s class,” he said in other footage. Ruiz pleaded to break into the classroom after discovering his wife had been shot. At least one of the children in the blood-soaked classroom had pleaded for help to save Mireles, 44, during one of the many 911 calls made during the massacre, pleading: “Send help for my teacher, she’s been shot but she’s still alive.” However, Mireles later died along with fellow teacher Irma Garcia and 19 of their students as police waited more than an hour to storm the adjacent classrooms. Ruiz was prevented from acting at the same time as desperate parents outside the building clashed with police officers who prevented them from breaking in and trying to rescue their children themselves. The widely condemned police response is the focus of several official investigations.
