Austin reporter, editor visit Manship School to discuss covering Uvalde school shooting

Published: March 8, 2023

By: Claire Sullivan and Gabby Jimenez | LSU Manship School News Service

Tony Plohetski, a reporter at the Austin American-Statesman, and Manny Garcia, the paper’s executive editor, talked about their coverage of the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Matthew Perschall | LSU Manship School News Service

Tony Plohetski, an Austin American-Statesman reporter who spent weeks covering the shooting in Uvalde, Texas, got a late-night call that was a turning point in the massacre’s coverage.

“Come get the video,” the call’s source told him.

The gut-wrenching, 77-minute security camera footage showed law enforcement officers standing idly by for over an hour while a gunman fired shots in a closed elementary school classroom.

Plohetski and his top editor, Manny Garcia, spoke to students at LSU’s Manship School of Mass Communication on Monday about the video’s consequences and what it was like to cover one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history. The gunman killed 19 children and two teachers.