First responders who rushed to Uvalde school shooting did not prioritize saving lives, new report says

Almost 400 regulation enforcement officers rushed to a mass taking pictures at an elementary college in Uvalde, Texas, however “systemic failures” created a chaotic scene that lasted greater than an hour earlier than the gunman who took 21 lives was lastly confronted and killed, in keeping with a report from investigators launched Sunday.

The nearly 80-page report was the primary to criticize each state and federal regulation enforcement, and never simply native authorities within the Texas city, for the bewildering inaction by closely armed officers as a gunman fired inside a fourth-grade classroom.

“At Robb Elementary, regulation enforcement responders failed to stick to their lively shooter coaching, they usually did not prioritize saving harmless lives over their very own security,” the report mentioned.

The gunman fired roughly 142 rounds contained in the constructing, and it’s “virtually sure” that 100 pictures got here earlier than any officer entered, in keeping with the report.

The report — essentially the most full account but of the hesitant and haphazard response to the Could 24 bloodbath at Robb Elementary Faculty — was written by an investigative committee from the Texas Home of Representatives and launched to members of the family Sunday.

In line with the report, 376 regulation enforcement officers massed on the college. The overwhelming majority of those that responded had been federal and state regulation enforcement. That included practically 150 U.S. Border Patrol brokers and 91 state police officers.

“Aside from the attacker, the committee didn’t discover any ‘villains’ in the midst of its investigation,” the report mentioned. “There is no such thing as a one to whom we will attribute malice or unwell motives. As an alternative, we discovered systemic failures and egregiously poor choice making.”

The report famous that lots of the lots of of regulation enforcement responders who rushed to the college had been higher skilled and outfitted than the college district police — which the pinnacle of the Texas Division of Public Security, the state police drive, beforehand faulted for not going into the room sooner.

“On this disaster, no responder seized the initiative to ascertain an incident command put up,” the report learn.

A spokesperson for the Texas Division of Public Security didn’t instantly return a request for remark Sunday.

Police chief wasted time trying to find key

No single officer has obtained as a lot scrutiny for the reason that taking pictures as Pete Arredondo, the Uvalde college district police chief who resigned from his newly appointed seat on town council after the taking pictures.

Arredondo advised the committee he handled the shooter as a “barricaded topic,” in keeping with the report, and defended by no means treating the scene as an active-shooter state of affairs as a result of he didn’t have visible contact with the gunman.

Arredondo additionally tried to discover a key for the lecture rooms, however nobody ever bothered to see if the doorways had been locked, in keeping with the report.

“Arredondo’s seek for a key consumed his consideration and wasted treasured time, delaying the breach of the lecture rooms,” the report learn.

The report criticized as “lackadaisical” the method of the lots of of officers who surrounded the college and mentioned that they need to have acknowledged that Arredondo remaining within the college with out dependable communication was “inconsistent” with him being the scene commander.

The report concluded that some officers waited as a result of they relied on unhealthy data whereas others “had sufficient data to know higher.”

Households reply to new report

Members of the family of the victims in Uvalde obtained copies of the report Sunday earlier than it was launched to the general public.

“It is a joke. They are a joke. They have no enterprise sporting a badge. None of them do,” Vincent Salazar, grandfather of 11-year-old Layla Salazer, mentioned Sunday.

A number of the victims’ households had been as a result of maintain a press convention at 5 p.m. ET on Sunday.

The report adopted weeks of closed-door interviews with greater than 40 folks, together with witnesses and regulation enforcement who had been on the scene of the taking pictures.

Flowers that had been piled excessive within the metropolis’s central sq. had been eliminated as of Sunday, leaving a couple of stuffed animal maps scattered across the fountains alongside photographs of among the kids who had been killed.

Video from college attracts new criticism

A virtually 80-minute hallway surveillance video printed by the Austin American-Statesman this week publicly confirmed for the primary time a hesitant and haphazard tactical response, which the pinnacle of Texas’s state police has condemned as a failure and a few Uvalde residents have blasted as cowardly.

Requires police accountability have grown in Uvalde for the reason that taking pictures. Up to now, just one officer from the scene of the deadliest college taking pictures in Texas historical past is understood to be on depart.

The report is the results of considered one of a number of investigations into the taking pictures, together with one other led by the Justice Division. A report earlier this month by tactical specialists at Texas State College alleged {that a} Uvalde police officer had an opportunity to cease the gunman earlier than he went inside the college armed with an AR-15.

However in an instance of the conflicting statements and disputed accounts for the reason that taking pictures, Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin has mentioned that by no means occurred.

That report had been accomplished on the request of the Texas Division of Public Security, which McLaughlin has more and more criticized and accused of making an attempt to attenuate the function of its troopers throughout the bloodbath.

Steve McCraw, the pinnacle of Texas DPS, has known as the police response an abject failure.