We’ve seen a lot of horrible moments from the Uvalde mass shooting.

Perhaps one of the worst stories was how the police held people back from saving their kids and family members, while police waited and didn’t act for 77 minutes. As we previously reported, they held back mom Angeli Gomez but she managed to get them to release her, and then she climbed over a fence and rescued her children who were in other classrooms.

One of the people who was held back was himself a police officer on the scene, Ruben Ruiz. Some people watching some of the released videos have attacked a police officer who was seen checking his phone, as police waited outside the doors of the classroom before acting. But that was Ruiz, who had been called by his wife, teacher Eva Mireles, who said she was shot and that she was dying. So, it’s completely understandable why he might be checking his phone.

But now, they’ve also released body cam video of some of those moments, including talking about Ruiz checking his phone, and part of that moment was when the police held Ruiz back from going in to save his wife. It’s hard to even imagine what must have been going through Ruiz’s mind at that moment, as they all were waiting there, with his wife on the other side of the wall.

Many difficult moments in the Uvalde body cams, but this one is painful to watch as a husband.

UCISD ofc. Ruben Ruiz had got a call from his wife, teacher Eva Mireles saying she'd been shot.

He tried to go through the officers to get to her.

They pulled him back. #khou11 pic.twitter.com/S6NNfFCT3v

— Marcelino Benito (@MarcelinoKHOU) July 20, 2022

Ruiz tries to rush past the other police officers, protesting when they grab him, “She said she’s shot, man.” The police not only prevented him from going forward, but also took his gun away from him and escorted him away from the scene. But it also shows that they knew that she was still alive in the classroom at that point and still didn’t go in to save her, even though they prevented her husband from doing so.

But because the police waited so long and failed on a host of issues, they weren’t able to save Eva Mireles. If I were one of those officers who didn’t go in, I’m not sure I would know how to face Ruiz again after he was held back.