Uvalde residents frustrated with officials over finger pointing, conflicting accounts and leaked video

Hundreds of dried-out flowers lie with handwritten notes and dust-covered toys in front of Robb Elementary School in Uvalde last month. Weeks after a gunman killed 21 people there, Uvalde residents and victims' relatives are frustrated by officials' handling of information about the massacre. (Credit: Kaylee Greenlee Beal for The Texas Tribune)

UVALDE — Over the past month and a half, Adam Martinez has attended Uvalde City Council meetings in this grieving Texas town hoping officials will give some insight into why police officers waited 77 minutes to confront and kill an 18-year-old gunman who fatally shot 19 elementary school students and two teachers on May 24.

Earlier this week, at the third City Council meeting Martinez has attended since the state’s deadliest school shooting, he stood up from his chair inside an auditorium to challenge Mayor Don McLaughlin’s criticism that surveillance footage showing officers waiting in a school hallway was leaked to news outlets.