A memorial to the 19 children and two adults killed on May 24 in a mass shooting at Robb Elementary is seen on May 30, 2022 in Uvalde, Texas.
Yasin Ozturk | Anadolu Agency | beautiful pictures
Nearly 400 law enforcement officials engaged in a mass shooting that left 21 dead at an elementary school in Uvalde but a “systemic error” created a scene of chaos that lasted more than an hour before the last gunman was confronted and killed, according to reports from investigators. Sunday.
The report is nearly 80 pages long obtained by many media was the first to criticize both state and federal law enforcement, and not just the local government in Uvalde, Texas, for Confused and inaction by officers crowding the hallways at Robb Elementary School.
The report was written by an investigative committee from the Texas House of Representatives and released to family members on Sunday.
The findings are the most complete account to date of the May 24 massacre in South Texas and the hesitant and chaotic reaction of heavily armed law enforcement when a gunman fired in a fourth grade classroom.
According to the Texas Tribune, which reviewed the report ahead of its scheduled release to the public late Sunday, the majority of those who responded at the school were federal and state law enforcement. According to the Tribune, there are nearly 150 US Border Patrol agents and 91 state police officials.
The report by an investigative committee led by the Texas House of Representatives follows weeks of closed-door interviews with more than 40 people, including witnesses and law enforcement at the scene of the shooting.
The committee has scheduled a private meeting with the Uvalde families to discuss their findings before releasing the report to the public.
The flowers that had been piled high in the downtown square were removed on Sunday, leaving behind a few stuffed animal maps scattered around the fountain along with photographs of some of the children who had died. die.
A nearly 80-minute hallway surveillance video released this week by the Austin American-Statesman publicly shows for the first time publicly a hesitant and chaotic tactical response, which the Texas police chief has condemned as failed and some Uvalde residents considered cowardice.
Calls for police accountability have grown in Uvalde since the shooting. So far, only one officer from the scene of the deadliest mass shooting in Texas history is said to be on leave.
The report is the result of one of many investigations into the shooting, including another led by the Justice Department. A report earlier this month by tactics experts at Texas State University alleged that a Uvalde police officer had an opportunity to stop the gunman before he entered the campus armed with an AR-15.
But in an example of conflicting statements and disputed accounts since the shooting, Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin said it never happened. That report was made at the request of the Texas Department of Public Safety, which McLaughlin has increasingly criticized and accused of trying to minimize the role of its soldiers in the massacre.
Steve McCraw, head of the Texas DPS, called the police response a crushing failure.
