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(WASHINGTON) — The first full-color image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has been released.

The images, the full set of which will be released Tuesday morning, will be the deepest and highest resolution ever taken of the universe, according to NASA.

The telescope will help scientists study the formation of the universe’s earliest galaxies, how they compare to today’s galaxies, how our solar system developed and if there is life on other planets.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:

Jul 12, 2:00 pm
Scientists explain image of dying star

NASA scientists revealed more details about the image of the Southern Ring Nebula taken by the James Webb Space Telescope.

The image shows a planetary nebula, or a cloud of gas that encircles a dying star.

Some stars go out with a bang. In these images of the Southern Ring planetary nebula, @NASAWebb shows a dying star cloaked by dust and layers of light. Explore this star’s final performance at https://t.co/63zxpNDi4I #UnfoldTheUniverse. pic.twitter.com/dfzrpvrewQ

— NASA (@NASA) July 12, 2022

During a press conference Tuesday, Klaus Pontoppidan, one of the telescope’s project scientists, explained why the image is important.

“It’s not just any star, it’s a star much like the sun, or like the sun will be in 5 billion years when the sun dies,” he said.

Pontoppidian said the star is pushing out its outer layers, including carbon and oxygen, which helps create other cosmic objects.

“There’s a life cycle of stars,” he added. “This is the end of this star, but it’s the beginning of other stars and planetary systems.”

Jul 12, 1:15 pm
NASA scientists say Webb will be ‘revolutionary’

NASA scientists said the images and data that will be collected from the James Webb Space Telescope will be groundbreaking in our understanding of the universe.

“This going to be revolutionary,” said Jane Rigby, the operations project scientist for the telescope, during a press conference Tuesday. “These are previous capabilities we’ve never had before.”

Her comments come after NASA released five new images with never-before-seen detail of exoplanets, stars, nebulae and galaxies in the universe.

Rigby said she cried from happiness after seeing the first images that Webb captured.

“It was a combination of giddy like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is great,’ and having a sob like, ‘Oh my God, this works,'” she said.

Jul 12, 12:05 pm
NASA shows difference between Webb and Hubble

NASA revealed the difference in images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, the first of which were revealed Tuesday, and its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope.

In a tweet, the space agency posted images of Stephan’s Quintet, a cluster of five galaxies — four of which interact.

The 2009 image taken by Hubble was captured over the span of several weeks and show the galaxies surrounded by several stars.

Meanwhile, the 2022 image taken by Webb was captured in less than one week and reveals hundreds of star formations never seen before because the telescope uses infrared technology, which reveals objects invisible to the human eye due to being surrounded by clouds, gas and dust.

Jul 12, 11:46 am
Hundreds of new stars in nebula revealed in final image

The final image revealed Tuesday from the James Webb Space Telescope has revealed new details about the Carina Nebula, located in the Milky Way Galaxy.

The image, which is actually just the edge of the nebula, shows hundreds of stars never seen before within the cloud.

Because of the massive amounts of dust and gas that exist within the nebula, the stars were not visible to the human eye.

The area, referred to as the Cosmic Cliffs, shows a “giant, gaseous cavity” as young stars that were recently born push down ultraviolet radiation and create the jagged-looking edge.

Jul 12, 11:26 am
Galaxy cluster seen in new telescope image

NASA’s newest image from the Webb telescope shows Stephan’s Quintet, a group of five galaxies located 290 million light-years away.

According to the space agency, the image “contains over 150 million pixels and is constructed from almost 1,000 separate image files.”

The image provides new information about the cluster, including the birth of millions of stars — as they happened millions of years ago — and tails of gas and dust that are being pulled in different directions as the galaxies engage in a “cosmic dance.”

The “most surprising” image, NASA said, is one of the galaxies, NGC 7318B, crashing through the middle of the cluster.

Jul 11, 6:41 pm
Biden unveils 1st full-color image from telescope

President Joe Biden unveiled the first full-color image taken by the James Webb Space Telescope.

The image, revealed during a press event held at the White House Monday and also attended by Vice President Kamala Harris, shows multiple galaxies.

It is the highest-resolution image of the universe ever captured, officials said.

“Today is a historic day,” said Biden. “It’s a new window into the history of our universe and today we’re going to get a first glimpse of the light to shine through that window.”

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the light seen on the image has been traveling for over 13 billion years.

Jul 11, 4:46 pm
NASA says all of the telescope’s instruments are ‘ready’

NASA announced Monday all four of the James Webb Space Telescope’s scientific instruments are ready to start being used.

The space agency said there are 17 modes, or ways, to operate the instruments. All have been examined and are “ready to begin full scientific operations.”

The last step was was checking the the telescope’s NIRCam, which block starlight so scientists can detect other nearby structures, such as exoplanets.

Jul 11, 4:00 pm
Test image from telescope offers preview

A test image taken by the James Webb Telescope offers a preview of what’s to come ahead of the release of the first full-color images.

NASA shared the photo last week taken by one of the telescope’s instruments, the Fine Guidance Sensor, or FGS, to demonstrate how strong, clear and sharp Webb’s images will be.

According to the space agency, the “false-color mosaic” is made up of 72 exposures taken over a 32-hour period.

NASA noted that the primary focus of the FGS is not even to capture images but to make sure the telescope is pointing precisely at its target.

Jul 11, 3:30 pm
What to know about the Webb telescope

The James Webb Space Telescope was jointly developed by NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.

Development began in 1996 but ran into several delays before it was completed in 2016 at a final cost of $10 billion.

The telescope was launched on Christmas Day and is orbiting 1 million miles from Earth.

It used infrared radiation to detect objects that are invisible to the human eye.

The four goals of the telescope are to study how the first stars and galaxies formed right after the Big Bang, comparing the galaxies from the past to those of today, how planetary systems formed and if there is any sign of life on other planets.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(OAK HILL, Fla.) — Two 12-year-old boys have been placed under arrest after they were found allegedly playing with and shooting a loaded gun in public.

The incident occurred on Monday morning when deputies from the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office responded to a report of two young boys playing with a loaded gun on a vacant lot in Oak Hill, about 55 miles northeast of Orlando, Florida, according to the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office.

“The reporting parties indicated they heard a gunshot and went to check to see if anyone was injured,” Volusia County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement posted to social media. “One of the boys then pointed the gun at their car, which was occupied by 2 adults and 3 children.”

“There are two little kids,” said the unnamed woman who reported the incident to authorities and can be heard on the body camera footage released by police. “As we were driving past their property, the little kids were standing out in the field, it appeared that he had a handgun and he was pointing it at our car as we were driving by.”

The responding sheriff’s sergeant heard and witnessed additional gunshots as she approached and ordered the boys out with their hands up.

“It was a real gun. We were shooting it over here,” one of the boys can be heard saying as they approached the responding officer. “Someone said we were allowed to.”

“How old are you?” asked the police officer.

“We are … we are both 12,” said one of the boys as they kept their arms raised in the air.

The boys were subsequently taken into custody without further incident and they were both charged with discharging a firearm and possession of a firearm by a person under 16. The Volusia Sheriff’s Office also confirmed that the boy who pointed the gun at the witnesses who reported the incident was also charged with aggravated assault with a firearm.

The two 12-year-olds have since been transported to the Department of Juvenile Justice and taken in for secure detention, according to authorities.

It is unclear how they procured the handgun or to who it belonged to, but both the gun and the ammunition were recovered from the scene of the crime and the case remains under investigation.

ABC News reached out but were unable to immediately determine the status of the youths and when they are expected to appear in court.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department has tapped Colette Peters, who serves as the director of the Oregon Department of Corrections, to lead the federal Bureau of Prisons, according to a statement released by Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Peters has been in her current role since 2012 and is expected to take the helm of an agency marred in controversy and mismanagement. It is unclear when Peters will start, as staff was notified Tuesday morning of Peters’ appointment, according to a source familiar with the situation.

The attorney general lauded Peters for her 30 years of public safety service in a statement released Tuesday.

“Director Peters is uniquely qualified to lead BOP in its efforts to ensure the rehabilitation, health, and safety of incarcerated individuals, a safe and secure work environment for correctional staff, and transparency and accountability across federal detention facilities,” the attorney general said.

The Bureau of Prisons is the largest agency inside the Justice Department with responsibility of 122 facilities and over 36,000 employees. Despite congressional attempts to do so, the BOP director is not a Senate-confirmed position, and the current director, Michael Carvajal, has said he will retire once a new director is in place.

Peters has not responded to ABC News’ request for comment.

Shane Fausey, president of the Council of Prison Locals, the union that represents 33,000 federal corrections workers, said he’s looking forward to collaborating with the new director.

“We are optimistic that we can collaboratively focus on our agency’s most difficult challenges by staffing our prisons safely while balancing responsible prison reforms like the First Step Act,” Fausey said in a statement Tuesday. “We believe that the lessons learned while leading the Oregon Department of Corrections can be used to effectively improve the BOP. It is imperative that the priority on any decisions made must be officer and employee safety, including their working conditions within our nation’s federal prisons.”

The Bureau of Prisons has been at the center of some controversy with high-profile inmates and scrutiny over its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2018, notorious crime boss James “Whitey” Bulger was killed at a federal prison in Hazelton, West Virginia, and a year later, convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide in Manhattan while awaiting trial. BOP has not released any official timeline or after-action report regarding the two incidents.

The sprawling agency was also chided by the union and a government watchdog for its early handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, which the Government Accountability Office found insufficient.

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(LOS ANGELES) — A man with an ankle monitor and who was already on parole for robbery has been arrested after allegedly committing armed robbery at a cell phone store after he allegedly held up two employees at gun point and ran away with money from the cash register.

The incident occurred at approximately 2:18 p.m. on Sunday when the Culver City Police Department in California received a call saying that an armed robbery had just taken place at a Boost Mobile store located at 4114 Centinela Ave. about three miles northeast of Los Angeles International Airport, according to the Culver City Police Department (CCPD).

When officers arrived to investigate they spoke with the two victims who were Boost Mobile employees who told them what had just happened and provided authorities with video surveillance footage of the robbery.

“Officers learned that the suspect, described as a Male, Black, wearing a blue hooded sweatshirt, blue sweatpants, a white mask, and blue surgical gloves, entered the store and pointed a black semi-automatic handgun at both victims,” said the Culver City Police Department in a statement posted on social media. “The suspect then jumped over the counter and forced both employees to lay face down, while he grabbed money from the cash register. The suspect took approximately $500 in US currency and fled the store on foot.”

However, after officers reviewed the security camera footage, they noticed that the suspect had dropped a set of car keys during the theft of the store which led them to conduct an area check.

It didn’t take long for authorities to locate a possible suspect vehicle that was parked one block away from the scene of the crime and, when the responding officers looked inside the car, “they observed the clothing that was worn by the suspect in the rear seat,” Culver City Police Department said.

Authorities continued to search the area and shortly after observed a man matching the description that was given to them by the Boost Mobile employees as well as the surveillance video that was captured of the armed robbery. The Culver City Police Department subsequently approached the suspect, 37-year-old Lawrence Bell from Torrance, California, and he was detained without incident.

“A search of the vehicle revealed a driver’s license in the detained subject’s name (Lawrence Bell), a loaded Glock Semi-automatic handgun, and the aforementioned clothing worn by the suspect during the commission of the robbery,” said the CCPD. “Additionally, the currency stolen during the robbery and other items of evidentiary value were recovered from inside the vehicle.”

Following Bell’s arrest, authorities discovered that he was already on parole for robbery and that he was “wearing an ankle monitor as a condition of his parole at the time of the robbery,” according to the CCPD.

It is unclear if Bell has legal representation but the case will be presented to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office at a date that has yet to be decided.

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(NEW YORK) — An ongoing heat wave is moving east, threatening states from Maine to Texas.

It will be another day of record-breaking temperatures for Texans. Abilene, Waco and San Antonio are under excessive heat warnings, according to the National Weather Service.

San Antonio reached 107 degrees on Monday, tying its hottest July record. Waco has seen record-high heat for the last four days.

Del Rio, Laredo and San Angelo all hit 110 degrees on Monday, breaking previous highs.

Nearly half of Texas continues to endure an extreme drought, made worse by the ongoing heat and dry weather.

Phoenix, Arizona, recorded a temperature of 115 degrees on Monday, a first for the year.

More than 30 million Americans in 13 states face the threat of severe weather.

North of the I-95 corridor, damaging winds, hail and an isolated tornado are the biggest threats to residents.

Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New York City, upstate New York and most of inland New England will face the worst of this weather.

Scattered storms are predicted to begin on Tuesday afternoon and continue into the evening.

The Gulf Coast faces a 30% threat of a tropical cyclone over the next few days, as low pressure continues to form.

Ocean waters have been abnormally warm over the northern Gulf, with temperatures reaching 90 degrees on the sea’s surface off of Louisiana and the Florida Panhandle.

Even without the threat of a cyclone, those on the northern Gulf Coast should prepare for flooding.

Out west, dry and hot conditions are paving the way for fire threats.

The Washburn Fire in Yosemite National Park is now measured at 2,720 acres and is only 22% contained as of Tuesday morning. Light winds have allowed firefighters to contain the spread.

Lightning and thunderstorms are forecast for Nevada, Northern California and southern Oregon, which could spark or spread new fires.

For now, the areas remain under a red flag warning.

The continuing heat and severe weather pose a significant health threat. For more information on staying safe in the heat, click here.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — First lady Jill Biden apologized Tuesday through her spokesperson after receiving public backlash for saying in a speech Monday that Latinos are “as unique as breakfast tacos.”

Spokesperson Michael LaRosa tweeted a brief apology on Tuesday morning following an onslaught of criticism from conservatives and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

“The First Lady apologizes that her words conveyed anything but pure admiration and love for the Latino community,” the tweet read.

The First Lady apologizes that her words conveyed anything but pure admiration and love for the Latino community.

— Michael LaRosa (@MichaelLaRosa46) July 12, 2022

Biden’s invocation of breakfast tacos came at the UnidosUS annual conference, titled “Siempre Adelante: Our Quest for Equity,” in San Antonio on Monday evening, while speaking to the nation’s largest Latino civil rights and advocacy group.

The first lady noted in her remarks that the group’s longtime leader, Raul Yzaguirre, had “helped build this organization with the understanding that the diversity of this community — as distinct as the bodegas of the Bronx, as beautiful as the blossoms of Miami, and as unique as the breakfast tacos here in San Antonio — is your strength.”

Republicans pounced on social media, saying she was comparing Latinos to tacos, and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists also clapped back, sending a message to the first lady to “not reduce us to stereotypes.”

NAHJ encourages @FLOTUS & her communications team to take time to better understand the complexities of our people & communities.

We are not tacos.

Our heritage as Latinos is shaped by various diasporas, cultures & food traditions.

Do not reduce us to stereotypes. pic.twitter.com/KQIq5gwsht

— NAHJ (@NAHJ) July 12, 2022

“NAHJ encourages @FLOTUS & her communications team to take time to better understand the complexities of our people & communities. We are not tacos. Our heritage as Latinos is shaped by various diasporas, cultures & food traditions. Do not reduce us to stereotypes,” it said.

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida responded by changing his Twitter profile picture to an image of a taco and tweeting, “#NewProfilePic.”

But Janet Murguía, the current president and CEO of UnidosUS, tweeted after Biden’s speech that the group was “honored” to host her, calling her “a great educator in, and a great amiga to, our community for years,” and adding she was, “Privileged to call her a friend.”

The analogy and apology from the first lady come at a time with President Joe Biden and Democrats are seeking to reach out to Hispanic voters ahead of the midterm elections and ahead of Biden meeting Tuesday with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador at the White House.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — The first full-color image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has been released.

The images, the full set of which will be released Tuesday morning, will be the deepest and highest resolution ever taken of the universe, according to NASA.

The telescope will help scientists study the formation of the universe’s earliest galaxies, how they compare to today’s galaxies, how our solar system developed and if there is life on other planets.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:

Jul 11, 6:41 pm
Biden unveils 1st full-color image from telescope

President Joe Biden unveiled the first full-color image taken by the James Webb Space Telescope.

The image, revealed during a press event held at the White House Monday and also attended by Vice President Kamala Harris, shows multiple galaxies.

It is the highest-resolution image of the universe ever captured, officials said.

“Today is a historic day,” said Biden. “It’s a new window into the history of our universe and today we’re going to get a first glimpse of the light to shine through that window.”

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the light seen on the image has been traveling for over 13 billion years.

Jul 11, 4:46 pm
NASA says all of the telescope’s instruments are ‘ready’

NASA announced Monday all four of the James Webb Space Telescope’s scientific instruments are ready to start being used.

The space agency said there are 17 modes, or ways, to operate the instruments. All have been examined and are “ready to begin full scientific operations.”

The last step was was checking the the telescope’s NIRCam, which block starlight so scientists can detect other nearby structures, such as exoplanets.

Jul 11, 4:00 pm
Test image from telescope offers preview

A test image taken by the James Webb Telescope offers a preview of what’s to come ahead of the release of the first full-color images.

NASA shared the photo last week taken by one of the telescope’s instruments, the Fine Guidance Sensor, or FGS, to demonstrate how strong, clear and sharp Webb’s images will be.

According to the space agency, the “false-color mosaic” is made up of 72 exposures taken over a 32-hour period.

NASA noted that the primary focus of the FGS is not even to capture images but to make sure the telescope is pointing precisely at its target.

Jul 11, 3:30 pm
What to know about the Webb telescope

The James Webb Space Telescope was jointly developed by NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.

Development began in 1996 but ran into several delays before it was completed in 2016 at a final cost of $10 billion.

The telescope was launched on Christmas Day and is orbiting 1 million miles from Earth.

It used infrared radiation to detect objects that are invisible to the human eye.

The four goals of the telescope are to study how the first stars and galaxies formed right after the Big Bang, comparing the galaxies from the past to those of today, how planetary systems formed and if there is any sign of life on other planets.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — The wildfire that is threatening an iconic grove of sequoia trees in Yosemite National Park could now affect human health hundreds of miles in the opposite direction.

An air quality advisory has been issued for California’s Bay Area, specifically the North Bay and East Bay regions, as the Washburn Fire continues to grow on the southern portion of Yosemite National Park.

The fire, which sparked Thursday near the Washburn Trail in Yosemite’s Mariposa Grove, had expanded to more than 2,700 acres by Monday — inching dangerously close to sequoia trees that have been in the region for thousands of years. More than 2,000 of the acres burned are located in the national park, according to Yosemite Fire and Aviation Management.

In the regions surrounding the San Francisco Bay about 200 miles west of the fire, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District is warning residents of pollutant levels that are expected to be in the moderate range.

Satellite images show significant amounts of smoke wafting over Northern California’s Pacific coast.

Despite the significant smog, air quality is not expected to worsen beyond federal health standards, according to the agency.

The fire is expected to continue “moderately” over the next 12 hours, but fire activity will increase and “actively” spread through the week due to warming temperatures and subsequent drying, according to Yosemite Fire.

The management of the fire is progressing at a relatively slow pace as firefighters set off backfires to clear the fuel that compiled in the region over a large tree mortality event between 2013 and 2015.

Since the fire is slow-moving and not affecting human safety, firefighters are able to take the time to clear the fuel, which consists of both standing trees and dead leaves and brush that have fallen to the ground, fire experts told ABC News.

About 360 firefighters are battling the Washburn Fire, according to Yosemite Fire.

The fuel, however, is posing a significant safety threat to firefighters on the ground, the experts said. The spread may also slow once the fire reaches some of the recent fire scars, according to Yosemite Fire.

The Mariposa Grove, one of the most popular destinations in Yosemite National Park and home to more than 500 mature giant sequoia trees, remains closed, as does the Highway 41 entrance into Yosemite National Park. Sequoias, native to the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California, are adaptive to fire, but intense fire amplified by the dry fuel could kill them, according to experts.

No reports of damage to any of the named trees in the grove have been released, and some tree trunks have been wrapped in fire-resistant foil as protection, a method used in September when the KNP Complex Fire threatened trees in Sequoia National Park’s Giant Forest.

Sprinklers have also been set up around several trees, including the Grizzly Giant, the most famous giant sequoia at Yosemite, which stands at 209 feet. Fire officials hope the steady stream of water, combined with prescribed burns, will be enough to protect the trees from a fatal encounter with the wildfire.

Wildfires sparked by lightning have killed about 20% of the 75,000 large sequoias in the West in recent years, The Associated Press reported. Protections for the Mariposa Grove began as early as 1864, when President Abraham Lincoln signed legislation to conserve the grove, marking the first time the U.S. federal government set aside a natural wonder so that future generations could enjoy it.

That initiative later became the model for the National Park system.

ABC News’ Jenna Harrison contributed to this report.

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(AUSTIN, Texas) — A chorus of Texas state leaders on Monday called on law enforcement officials to release surveillance video from inside Robb Elementary School during the May 24 mass shooting, including Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who is running for reelection.

“That video needs to be released, as well as the audio,” Abbott told Austin ABC affiliate KVUE in an interview Monday afternoon. “The Texans need to know. But, frankly, the people of Uvalde, they deserve to get to know exactly what happened. And I urge that it happen very quickly.”

The deluge of support from top politicians capped a day of finger-pointing and about-faces from state leaders. At a hearing in Austin on Monday morning, a key Texas state legislator suggested that an agreement between law enforcement and local officials to disclose a portion of the footage had been struck — only for one of the parties to the supposed agreement to quickly rebuff that claim.

Rep. Dustin Burrows, the chairman of a special Texas House panel investigating the Robb Elementary shooting, announced Monday morning that the Texas Department of Public Safety and the mayor of Uvalde had reached a deal to disclose surveillance video showing officers gathered in the hallway outside of the classroom containing the 21-year-old gunman.

But within hours of Burrows’ comment, the Texas Department of Public Safety gave ABC News a July 8 letter it sent to the chairman informing him that the law enforcement agency could not unilaterally grant his request for the tapes, citing instruction from the Uvalde-area district attorney, Christina Busbee.

“[Busbee] has objected to releasing the video and has instructed us not to do so,” according to the letter, which was signed by DPS Deputy Director Freeman Martin. “As the individual with authority to consider whether any criminal prosecution should result from the events in Uvalde, we are guided by her professional judgment regarding the potential impact of releasing the video.”

After Monday’s hearing concluded, Burrows clarified his earlier comments, telling ABC News, “We’re still working on getting the video released, but no agreements.” He later tweeted, “It is my intention to show the hallway video to the people of Uvalde, regardless of any agreement. I will not release it to the public until the people of Uvalde have seen it for themselves.”

Busbee did not respond to ABC News’ requests for comment.

This latest round of confusion is certain to exacerbate frustration within the Uvalde community. More than six weeks after the shooting, which ended the lives of 19 students and two teachers, several questions remain about the 77 minutes that elapsed between the time the shooter entered the school, and the moment law enforcement officers breached the classroom and killed him.

Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw characterized the police response as “an abject failure” during testimony before a Texas Senate panel last month, raising the stakes for officials to release video footage.

On Sunday, families of the victims gathered in Uvalde’s town square to voice their frustrations with state and local leaders over their handling of the shooting and subsequent investigations. The event was called The Unheard Voices March & Rally, as a reflection of the sentiment shared by many residents of the small West Texas town.

The public back-and-forth over whether and what investigative evidence to publicly share from inside the school has become a source of conflict between some family members of the victims and officials who claimed to represent their interests. Busbee has said that releasing footage could hinder her ongoing probe into whether the shooting warrants any criminal charges.

Over the weekend, Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin accused Busbee of misleading family members about McLaughlin’s support for releasing certain footage showing the police response during the rampage.

On Friday, McLaughlin affirmed his support for the release of “all videos,” including “the entire 77-minute hallway video … up the moment of the breach.” But less than 24 hours later, he issued a follow-up statement clarifying that he only sought the release of video showing the police response — not any children or any images from the classroom.

In the course of his about-face, McLaughlin claimed that Busbee had been “advising” families of the victims that he supported releasing videos showing deceased children, and accused her of “not telling the truth.”

McLaughlin later told ABC News that video from the hallway inside of Robb would “contradict misconceptions that Uvalde police were the only ones inside with weapons,” and releasing the tape would “provide transparency to everyone.”

On Monday, Rep. Burrows said he would “continue to put pressure on the situation and consider all options in making sure that video gets out for the public to view,” but did not commit to a timeline for a public release.

“I can tell people all day long what it is I saw, the committee can tell people all day long what we saw, but it’s very different to see it for yourself,” Burrows said. “And we think that’s very important.”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(UVALDE, Texas) — State and local officials have agreed to release surveillance footage from inside the hallway of Robb Elementary School during the May 24 mass shooting that ended the lives of 19 students and two teachers, a key Texas state legislator said Monday.

The development appears to end a weeks-long dispute between the Texas Department of Public Safety and the mayor of Uvalde over how to handle the sensitive video, although it is not clear when the video will be made public.

The public back-and-forth ultimately became a source of conflict between some family members of the victims and officials who claimed to represent their interests.

At a Monday hearing in Austin, Rep. Dustin Burrows, the chairman of a special Texas House panel investigating the Robb shooting, said the video “would contain no graphic images or depictions of violence,” but supported releasing footage of the police response to help the public better understand what happened inside the school.

“I can tell people all day long what it is I saw, the committee can tell people all day long what we saw, but it’s very different to see it for yourself,” Burrows said. “And we think that’s very important.”

Burrows did not say when the video would be released, but committed to “continue to put pressure on the situation and consider all options in making sure that video gets out for the public to view.”

More than six weeks after the massacre, questions remain about the response of the police and the 77 minutes that elapsed between the time the shooter entered the school and when law enforcement breached the classroom and killed him.

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