Security footage aired this week on television and online by ABC affiliate KVUE in Austin and the Austin American-Statesman captured Officer Ruben Ruiz, a member of the Uvalde Unified Independent School District police force, checking his cellphone for his wife, teacher Eva Mireles. , contacted him to say he had been shot and was dying, officials said. Texas state Rep. Joe Moody publicly identified Ruiz as the officer who checked his phone in the video, after the officer was criticized by some social media users as an example of the May 24 law enforcement response that the Steven McCraw, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, has been described as “a big failure”. Video leaked to two Texas news outlets shows Officer Ruben Ruiz checking his phone in the hallway of Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022. Authorities said Ruiz was texting with his wife, Eva, as she was trapped in the classroom , wounded and dying. Picked up by KVUE Moody took to Twitter Wednesday to inform the public that Ruiz was the husband of Mireles, one of two teachers who were killed along with 19 children at the school. Moody is part of a joint committee of the Texas Legislature that has spent weeks investigating the mass shooting and is scheduled to meet Sunday with loved ones of the dead and release a report on its findings. Uvalde:365 is an ongoing ABC News series reported from Uvalde that focuses on the Texas community and how it develops in the shadow of tragedy. “I didn’t plan to speak publicly until after the report was released, but I couldn’t say anything watching this man, who has lost everything, rant as if he was uncaring or actively malicious. Context matters,” Moody tweeted. . Ruiz was among four officers who first entered the school three minutes after the suspect wielding an AR-15-style rifle entered the school unharmed through an unlocked door. Eva Mireles, fourth grade teacher at Robb Elementary and victim of the May 24, 2022 school shooting, is pictured in an undated family photo. Courtesy of Lydia Martinez Delgado While testifying before a Texas state Senate committee on June 21, McCraw said Ruiz tried to save his wife but was prevented from doing so. “We have an officer, Officer Ruiz, whose wife called and said he had been shot and was dying,” McCraw told the state Senate committee. “What happened to him was he tried to walk down the aisle. He was arrested and his gun was taken away and he was escorted off stage.” One of the kids in Mireles’ class called 911 during the rampage and pleaded with a dispatcher, “Send help for my teacher, she’s been shot but she’s still alive.” Police finally burst into the classroom and killed the gunman 77 minutes after he entered the school, but it was too late to save Mireles and the 20 other victims, officials said. Mireles was a fourth-grade teacher at the elementary school, relatives told ABC News. She was a teacher in the school district for about 17 years, family said. Amber Ybarra, a cousin of Ruiz’s, called Mireles a “hero” and an “amazing mom.” “She was very adventurous and courageous and vivacious and could light up a room,” Ybarra told ABC News. “She will miss him.”
