An Uvalde police officer criticized for video of him checking his phone during the massacre at Robb Elementary School is the husband of a teacher who was killed in class and had contacted him after she was shot, according to a Texas lawmaker investigating the attack . Texas state representative Joe Moody defended Ruben Ruiz after the officer was singled out by some social media users as an example of the baffling inaction of law enforcement in the May 24 attack. About 80 minutes of surveillance video published this week by the Austin American-Statesman showed Ruiz as one of the first officers to arrive in the hallway after the shooting began. He checks his phone moments before the officers closest to the classroom run back down the hall after shots are fired. Moody tweeted Wednesday that the officer was the husband of Eva Mireles, one of two teachers killed along with 19 children in their fourth-grade classroom. Moody is part of a Texas commission that has spent weeks investigating the shooting and plans to release its findings Sunday. “I didn’t plan to speak publicly until the report was released, but I couldn’t say anything to see this man, who lost everything, being maligned as if he was uncaring or actively malicious. Context matters,” Moody tweeted. Hallway video shows Ruiz quickly looking at his phone around 11:36 a.m. while holding a seat at the end of the aisle. Three minutes earlier, the gunman is seen walking down the hall and into the classroom. Authorities previously said body camera footage later showed Ruiz at 11:48 a.m. to enter the building through the west door and tell the officers, “She’s being shot.” “What happened to (Ruiz) is he tried to go down the aisle, he was arrested and his gun was taken from him and he was escorted from the scene,” Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw told lawmakers at a hearing. on June 21. McCraw called it a “huge failure” that police ultimately waited more than an hour before confronting the gunman. “We will have a lot to say about the police response, but no criticism of this officer,” Moody tweeted.
