On May 24, 2022, an 18-year-old gunman walked into Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and killed 19 children and two teachers. We’re now nearly a month removed from the event and while many media outlets have moved on from the tragedy, Trevor Noah has not. On Tuesday night, The Daily Show host got angry about the latest details that have emerged in an investigation into the incident and the many ways the Uvalde Police Department—which, just days after the event, stopped cooperating with investigators—failed its citizens. Hell, even Tucker Carlson was livid! The police, Noah noted, have “been trying to block information about that day from coming out. And each time more information comes out, we learn why.”
On Tuesday, the first surveillance image from inside the school was released and what it showed painted a far different story from what police officials have claimed: The image, taken just 19 minutes after the gunman entered the school, shows multiple police officers inside the building, fully armed with at least one carrying a ballistic shield. This contradicts the school police chief’s statement that officers didn’t enter the school for nearly an hour because they weren’t properly armed. Noah was clearly appalled.
Every single time we learn something it gets worse and worse… Now we found out that they lied about not having enough weapons to go in. Because it turns out they had assault rifles, they had body armor, and ballistic shields. So I’m sorry, what else were they waiting for? The invincible star from Mario? What was that, huh? Get the f**k in the room! Like, how do they not go in? Which is, by the way, another thing we’ve learned.
They didn’t even try to get in the classroom. They didn’t even try. They told everyone that they had to wait for a key because the door was locked, but the door wasn’t locked. They just never tried to open it? Which is ridiculous. Even people waiting outside a locked bathroom at Starbucks will jiggle the handle after two minutes just to be sure sure. They’ll try. But it turns out these cops couldn’t do what it took the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park five minutes to learn. And you know what’s insane about this whole story is how the one time—the one time—it would have been appropriate to go in guns blazing, the cops decide to have a picnic outside. Yeah. But if you’re Black or you have a broken taillight, then all of a sudden they go all Rambo on your ass.
Ultimately, Noah concluded, the situation is Uvalde serves as just “another reminder that you can’t trust what the police say. This is one of the clearest reminders. Yes, they’re police. Yes, you respect them. But it doesn’t mean you just trust every single thing that they say.”
You can watch the full clip, beginning around the 5:35 mark, above.