Leaked video shows Texas police waited in hallway 1 hour before confronting Uvalde school shooter (Watch)

A video showing police waiting for more than an hour in the school hallway before confronting the Uvalde school shooter has been published by the Austin American-Statesman and KVUE-TV.

The apparent video was leaked before the authorities planned to release it to the public.

“The way that video was released today was the most chicken thing I’ve ever seen,” the mayor, stopping short of cursing, said during the meeting attended by residents and families affected by the shooting.

The 1-hour-and-22-minute version of the video was edited to remove the sound of children screaming and to obscure the identity of a student who ran from the shooter in the hallway.

It shows the arrival of the police soon after a teacher called 911 to report sighting a gunman in the parking lot.

The police can be seen approaching two classrooms where the gunman, an 18-year-old Uvalde resident, was shooting.

The officers retreat after being fired on and do not reapproach for more than an hour, when the shooter had accessed more classrooms and killed 19 students and two teachers.

Multiple law enforcement officers from Uvalde, the state Department of Public Safety, U.S. Border Patrol and other agencies can be seen in the video. Many were heavily armed and had shields but waited more than an hour before they stormed the classroom.

State officials complained that they wanted the families of the victims to have the opportunity to see the footage first.

See the video here.