In the year since the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, much of the blame for law enforcement’s decision to wait more than an hour to confront the gunman has centered on the former chief of the school district’s small police force. But a Washington Post investigation has found that the costly delay was also driven by the inaction of an array of senior and supervising law enforcement officers who remain on the job and had direct knowledge a shooting was taking place inside classrooms but failed to swiftly stop the gunman. The Post’s review of dozens of hours of body camera videos, post-shooting interviews with officers, audio from dispatch communications and law enforcement licensing records identified at least seven officers who stalled even as evidence mounted that children were still in danger. Some were the first to arrive, while others were called in for their expertise. All are still employed by the same agencies they worked for that day. One was commended for his actions that day. Subscribe to The Washington Post on YouTube: https://wapo.st/2QOdcqK Follow us: Twitter: https://twitter.com/washingtonpost Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/washingtonp... Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/washingtonpost/

Update: The Justice Department announced Sept. 9, 2022 that it would not file federal criminal civil rights charges against Officer Jenison. When 17-year-old John Albers posted threats of suicide on social media in January 2018, worried friends called 911 for help. The high school student was backing his family minivan out of the garage when he was shot 13 times by an Overland Park, Kan. police officer who responded to the call and said he feared he’d be struck by the van. Within a month, the prosecutor in Johnson County, Kan., Steve Howe, declared that the fatal shooting was justified and charges would not be filed. Every year in America, police fatally shoot about 1,000 people. In each case, police — often from the same department — investigate the officer, and it’s rare that details of the investigation are made public. But in the case of the death of Albers, something extremely unusual happened: the city of Overland Park released the entire police investigative file and corresponding visuals, after being sued by KSHB-TV. In this case, the Overland Park police did not investigate their own officer. Instead, Johnson County launches an Officer-Involved Shooting Investigation Team after each such incident, using officers from other departments in the county. The nearly 500-page file revealed the investigation was concluded in six days. The Washington Post provided it to five law enforcement experts, veterans of policing, use-of-force investigations and prosecutions. All five found flaws with the investigation, and several said investigators approached the case favoring the perception of the officer, a stance the experts said is common in such cases. The Post’s analysis found steps missing from the investigative report, such as scene diagrams, that some experts said are typically performed in officer-involved shooting investigations. The Post also created a 3D reconstruction, based on available evidence, to show Jenison’s position at each of the moments he fired at Albers. The 3D reconstruction and dash-cam videos showed Albers was close to the van when it first backed out of the garage, and then briefly in the path of the van after it spun around, but he moved out of the van’s path each time and then fired. The Post took the police investigative file, dash-cam videos, expert analysis, interviews with the Albers family and the 3D reconstruction to create an inside look into how police investigated one of their own. Read more: https://wapo.st/3AHlSsA. Subscribe to The Washington Post on YouTube: https://wapo.st/2QOdcqK Follow us: Twitter: https://twitter.com/washingtonpost Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/washingtonpost/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/washingtonpost/

UPDATE: After this video was published, The Post determined Bharti Shahani, another victim, was also in the south quadrant when the concert began, according to a video she took that was obtained by The Post. In an interview, Shahani's sister, who was with her at the concert, confirmed the location. The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences announced on Dec. 16 that all 10 deaths were due to compression asphyxia, meaning the victims were squeezed so tightly that they lost their ability to draw a breath. *** At least seven of the 10 dead after Travis Scott's Astroworld Festival were clustered in a small area enclosed on three sides by metal barriers that became dangerously crowded, according to a Washington Post investigation. The review — based on dozens of videos examined for when and where each was taken, interviews with witnesses, and an analysis by crowd experts — reveals how a crowd surge at a performance by Scott turned one pocket of the audience into an epicenter of chaos and distress. Ten fans at the Nov. 5 concert in Houston died and dozens more were injured, making it one of the most deadly concerts in the nation’s history. The Post found that most of those who died were close to each other in the viewing area’s south quadrant, where witnesses described people collapsing under the pressure of the crowd. Three concertgoers who died appeared unconscious in a pile of other fallen fans in the south quadrant only 16 minutes into the show, according to a video reviewed by The Post. The concert continued for nearly another hour. In parts of the tightly compressed area where many of the dead were concentrated, there were as little as 1.85 square feet per person, according to an analysis done by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University for The Post. At that density, people are amid a crowd that is at risk of dangerously collapsing in on itself, two crowd science experts said. The Post’s reconstruction of the night’s events, including details evident in exclusively obtained videos, also underscores unanswered questions about how long the concert was allowed to continue after fans already were pleading for help and receiving emergency care. Subscribe to The Washington Post on YouTube: https://wapo.st/2QOdcqK Follow us: Twitter: https://twitter.com/washingtonpost Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/washingtonpost/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/washingtonpost/

At 1:13 p.m. on Jan. 6, a D.C. police commander facing a swelling crowd of protesters on the west side of the U.S. Capitol made an urgent call for more officers in riot gear. “Hard gear at the Capitol! Hard gear at the Capitol!” Cmdr. Robert Glover shouted into his radio. Over the next 78 minutes, Glover requested backup at least 17 times, according to a Washington Post analysis of the events, and the mob on the west side eventually grew to at least 9,400 people, outnumbering officers by more than 58 to one. The Post reviewed police radio communications, synchronized them with hours of footage and drew on testimony and interviews with police supervisors to understand how failures of preparation and planning played out that day. At The Post’s request, a team of researchers at Carnegie Mellon University analyzed imagery to estimate the number of people outside the Capitol at precise moments. To visualize those numbers more clearly, The Post created a 3-D model of the Capitol grounds that approximated the crowd from a bird’s-eye view using data from the researchers’ crowd-counting software. The examination reveals how police were hampered by an insufficient number of officers and shortages of less-lethal weapons and protective equipment and also provides a glimpse into communications breakdowns within the police response. Subscribe to The Washington Post on YouTube: https://wapo.st/2QOdcqK Follow us: Twitter: https://twitter.com/washingtonpost Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/washingtonp... Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/washingtonpost #WashingtonPost #VisualForensics #CapitolRiot

At 2:12 p.m. on Jan. 6, supporters of President Trump began climbing through a window they had smashed on the northwest side of the U.S. Capitol. “Go! Go! Go!” someone shouted as the rioters, some in military gear, streamed in. It was the start of the most serious attack on the Capitol since the War of 1812. The mob coursed through the building, enraged that Congress was preparing to make Trump’s electoral defeat official. “Drag them out! … Hang them out!” rioters yelled at one point, as they gathered near the House chamber. Officials in the House and Senate secured the doors of their respective chambers, but lawmakers were soon forced to retreat to undisclosed locations. Five people died on the grounds that day, including a Capitol police officer. In all, more than 50 officers were injured. To reconstruct the pandemonium inside the Capitol, The Washington Post examined text messages, photos and hundreds of videos, some of which were exclusively obtained. By synchronizing the footage and locating some of the camera angles within a digital 3-D model of the building, The Post was able to map the rioters’ movements and assess how close they came to lawmakers — in some cases feet apart or separated only by a handful of vastly outnumbered police officers. Subscribe to The Washington Post on YouTube: https://wapo.st/2QOdcqK Follow us: Twitter: https://twitter.com/washingtonpost Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/washingtonp... Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/washingtonpost #WashingtonPost #VisualForensics #CapitolRiot

Subscribe to The Washington Post on YouTube: https://wapo.st/2QOdcqK As winter approaches, the United States is grappling with a jaw-dropping surge in the number of novel coronavirus infections. More than 288,000 Americans have been killed by a virus that public health officials now say can be spread through airborne transmission. The virus spreads most commonly through close contact, scientists say. But under certain conditions, people farther than six feet apart can become infected by exposure to tiny droplets and particles exhaled by an infected person, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in October. Those droplets and particles can linger in the air for minutes to hours. To visually illustrate the risk of airborne transmission in real time, The Washington Post used a military-grade infrared camera capable of detecting exhaled breath. Numerous experts — epidemiologists, virologists and engineers — supported the notion of using exhalation as a conservative proxy to show potential transmission risk in various settings. The highly sensitive camera system detects variations in infrared radiation that are not visible to the naked eye. The technology is more typically used in military and industrial settings, such as detecting methane gas leaks in pipelines. In 2013, it was deployed by law enforcement during the 20-hour manhunt for the Boston Marathon bombers. But fitted with a filter that specifically targets the infrared signature of carbon dioxide, the camera can be used to map in real time the partial path of the nearly invisible particles we exhale. Watch the video to learn more. Follow us: Twitter: https://twitter.com/washingtonpost Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/washingtonpost/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/washingtonpost/ #WashingtonPost #VisualForensics

Prominent Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny was allegedly poisoned on Aug. 20 in Russia’s Tomsk Airport before he boarded a flight to Moscow. Navalny is the latest addition to a long list of Kremlin critics to face suspected or confirmed poisoning. The Washington Post analyzed videos and photos — a mix of open-source material, social media posts and flight paths — to retrace Navanly’s steps in the days leading up to his suspected poisoning. While the available visual evidence does not reveal how he was poisoned or when, it provides a record for whom Navalny came into contact with and where he visited in the days prior. Navalny had been in Novosibirsk and then Tomsk to meet with activists and opposition candidates for regional elections next month. A photograph shows Navalny drinking tea at a cafe in the Tomsk airport - the only thing his spokeswoman saw him eat or drink the day of his flight. Video captures Navalny wailing in pain after the plane took off and he lost consciousness by the time the plane made an emergency landing in the city of Omsk. German doctors said clinical results indicate he was poisoned. Russian media reported that he was under constant surveillance by federal security agents during the trip, though the Kremlin has denied that President Vladimir Putin was involved in Navalny’s poisoning. Russia has yet to open a criminal investigation into the incident, despite Western governments’ calls to do so. The Russian doctor’s who initially treated Navalny at Omsk Hospital No. 1 said there was no evidence of poisoning. Navalny’s allies - family and colleagues - accused physicians of initially blocking is transfer to Berlin because they faced pressure from authorities seeking to hinder investigation into the incident. #WashingtonPost #VisualForensics #AlexeiNavalny

For months, even as the coronavirus pandemic grew into a debilitating national crisis, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro did everything he could to downplay it. He called on people to return to normal. He waded into crowds of supporters. He repeatedly described it as nothing more than a little flu. Now Brazil is experiencing the world’s second-worst coronavirus outbreak — with 1.8 million infected and 70,000 dead — and one of the latest people to test positive for covid-19 is Bolsonaro himself. The Washington Post analyzed hundreds of videos and photos of Bolsonaro to retrace his steps in the two weeks before he first reported symptoms on July 5. The visual evidence shows that Bolsonaro not only met with far more people than his official schedule suggests, but that he routinely flouted public health guidelines. He at times wore a mask and maintained a distance of six feet from others. But just as frequently, he met with people without a mask, shook hands and even hugged supporters. 2:18 - June 23: A judge orders Bolsonaro to wear a mask when in public spaces in Brasilia and the surrounding federal district. 4:10 - June 27: Bolsonaro visited the town of Araguari in the state of Minas Gerais. Several photos and videos from the visit show him without a mask interacting with crowds. 5:53 - July 3: One hundred and eight Planalto Palace employees tested positive for the coronavirus, according to Brazil’s General Secretariat. 6:33 - July 4: Bolsonaro attended a July 4 party at the residence of the U.S. ambassador to Brazil. Photos show the two men unmasked, standing shoulder to shoulder. 7:05 - July 7: Bolsonaro held a small news conference to tell the gathered reporters, clustered nearby, that he’d tested positive for the coronavirus. And then he took off his mask. Bolsonaro is now isolated, but how he got to this point is revealed in the weeks before. Editor's note: At 0:49 and 6:06 we identified Paulo Skaf incorrectly. We regret the error.

The Washington Post analyzed hours of video footage and obtained audio of police communications and other records to assemble the most complete account to date of the June 1 crackdown on protesters in Washington D.C.. Late in the day on June 1, demonstrators gathered near the White House, on the edge of Lafayette Square, to protest police abuse following the death in custody of Minneapolis resident George Floyd. Similar protests had erupted across the country. Many were peaceful, but some included property destruction and clashes with police. At about 6:30 p.m., just north of the White House, federal police in riot gear fired gas canisters and used grenades containing rubber pellets to scatter the largely peaceful demonstrators. Their actions cleared the way for the president, surrounded by the nation’s top law enforcement and military leaders, to walk to the historic St. John’s Church for a three-minute photo op. Watch how a remarkable hour of Trump’s presidency unfolded. Read the Post’s coverage of the nationwide protests: https://www.washingtonpost.com/george-floyd-protests/ Subscribe to The Washington Post on YouTube: https://wapo.st/2QOdcqK Follow us: Twitter: https://twitter.com/washingtonpost Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/washingtonp... Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/washingtonpost/ #WashingtonPost #VisualForensics #LafayetteSquare