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Parents upset full Uvalde school shooting video leaked early: 'Shame on you'

A 77-minute video shared by a pair of local media outlets left families of Uvalde victims outraged that they weren't able to view it before it became public.

Family members of the mass shooting victims in Uvalde, Texas, expressed their outrage on Tuesday that a 77-minute surveillance video from the shooting was leaked to the media before they were given a chance to view it.

Video from inside Robb Elementary School on May 24 shows heavily armed law enforcement officers waiting for orders as 19 children and two teachers were under attack in a classroom only steps away.

The leaked video was shared by the Austin American-Statesman and local ABC affiliate KVUE on Tuesday. The footage is from security cameras outside the school and inside the hallways, bodycam video from one of the responding officers, cellphone video and 911 audio, which were all edited together.

NBC News has not independently obtained the video, which the families were not expecting to see until a preliminary report by the Texas House of Representatives that is expected to be released on July 17.

"Shame on you," said Berlinda Arreola, the grandmother of shooting victim Amerie Jo Garza, addressing the news outlets that aired the video. "All you wanted was the fame and recognition to say you were the first person to leak that video without even taking any of the parents grandparents family members thoughts into consideration."

“It’s going to be in our social media forever, and not just us, for our kids at home," Gloria Cazares, whose 9-year-old daughter was killed in the shooting, said on TODAY Wednesday.

Uvalde mayor Don McLaughlin also expressed his displeasure at the leak following another highly charged Uvalde City Council meeting on Tuesday night.

"Whoever did it, it’s a pretty chicken (expletive) action in my opinion," he told NBC News about the leak. "It’s cheap and degrading. These families have been through enough.”

The school district also released a statement.

"The footage is heartbreaking and we are deeply dismayed that the families that lost loved ones were not given the opportunity they deserve to view it privately before it was shared publicly," the district said. "We continue to await the results of the ongoing investigation so that we, along with districts across the state and nation, can take informed action to enhance our ability to prevent future tragedies."

In a column published online Tuesday, the Austin American-Statesman said its decision to publish two versions of the video came after "long and thoughtful discussions" among the paper's senior leaders.

"Our 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," Manny Garcia, the paper's ethics and standards editor, wrote in the column.

The decision was also part of an effort to push for more transparency on the case from law enforcement, elected leaders and public officials, including Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Garcia argued.

"This tragedy has been further tragic by changing stories, heroic-sounding narratives proven to be false and a delay or in most cases rejection of media requests for public information by law enforcement leaders, public officials and elected leaders. Many of the requests now rest in the hands of Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office, who has not yet decided what should be released," Garcia wrote.

"But there are also heroes: elected leaders, public officials, law enforcement officers, survivors of the massacre who want the truth out. The truth always wins, maybe not on our clock, but the truth always prevails."

The disturbing video shows officers armed with rifles, ballistic shields and body armor waiting for more than an hour before engaging and killing the gunman. The response to the shooting by multiple agencies has been criticized by Texas law enforcement officials as an "abject failure."

One officer is even seen in the video using hand sanitizer from a dispenser mounted on the wall of the hallway as he waited.

"We've gotta go," one officer can be heard saying. "We got to get the doors open.”

That statement came 30 minutes before law enforcement confronted and killed the gunman. NBC News reached out to the Uvalde police for comment since the release of the video and has not heard back.

"It was horrific," Arreola said about the video. "It was disturbing. It was the worst thing I could possibly see. This just confirmed my disappointment."

"We know who did the shooting, but we also know the officers that stayed in the hallway for over 50 minutes," Brett Cross, the uncle of shooting victim Uziyah Garcia, told Brock on TODAY. "Seventy-seven minutes of just sitting there idly by."

The video also shows the first up-close look at the 18-year-old shooter, who is seen calmly walking through a school hallway with an AR-15 rifle. A child can be seen peering at him from a hallway corner before running for his life.

"We already knew that they did nothing," Arreola said. "That just confirmed our anger that just confirmed that we had a reason to be angry. But the most shocking the most disgusting part of it all was just watching him walk in there like nothing."