A total of 376 law enforcement officers were at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas when a gunman was at large for over an hour on May 24, leaving 21 people dead. A majority of the officers were federal and state actors, including 149 US Border Patrol officers and 91 Texas Department of Public Safety officers. Twenty-five officers were from the Uvalde Police Department, and 16 were from the Uvalde County Sheriff’s Office.
“They failed to prioritize saving the lives of innocent victims over their own safety,” according to an interim report released Sunday by the Texas House investigative committee on the shooting. The report, reviewed by Insider, assessed the disorganized response from multiple law enforcement agencies, some of which have changed their facts about the shooting over a dozen times. Until the release of the report, blame had primarily been focused on Uvalde Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who was widely criticized for deciding to wait over an hour, 73 minutes, for backup instead of confronting the shooter, who was ultimately killed by US Border Patrol officers.
“These local officials were not the only ones expected to supply the leadership needed during this tragedy,” the report says. “Hundreds of responders from numerous law enforcement agencies — many of whom were better trained and better equipped than the school district police — quickly arrived on the scene. ” The officers from other responding agencies “could have helped to address the unfolding chaos,” the report says, noting that Arredondo and the commander of the Uvalde Police Department’s SWAT team were the “first wave of responders to arrive” on the scene.
“Despite the immediate presence of local law enforcement leaders, there was an unacceptably long period of time before officers breached the classroom, neutralized the attacker, and began rescue efforts. We do not know at this time whether responders could have saved more lives by shortening that delay,” the report said. “It’s a joke.
They’re a joke. They’ve got no business wearing a badge. None of them do,” Vincent Salazar, the grandfather of slain 11-year-old Layla Salazer, told The Associated Press .
The report concluded that “no responder seized the initiative to establish an incident command post,” a role that was supposed to have been claimed or transferred to another by Chief Arredondo, per the district’s own written active shooter plan. The gunman entered through “the unlocked west door” and “had about three minutes in the west building” before police arrived, during which the gunman fired over 100 rounds, the report said. Officers identified the location of the shooter but “the attacker immediately repelled them with a burst of rifle fire from inside the classrooms,” per the report.
“The responders immediately began to assess options to breach the classroom, but they lost critical momentum by treating the scenario as a ‘barricaded subject’ instead of with the greater urgency attached to an ‘active shooter’ scenario,” the report says. Most of the victims likely “perished immediately during the attacker’s initial barrage of gunfire,” the report says. “However, given the information known about victims who survived through the time of the breach and who later died on the way to the hospital, it is plausible that some victims could have survived if they had not had to wait 73 additional minutes for rescue.
” The committee issued the interim report on Sunday “believing the victims, their families, and the entire Uvalde community have already waited too long for answers and transparency. ” “Police officers see danger and run to meet it, knowing the cost and stepping forward to pay it,” the report said, adding that “law enforcement officers sometimes fail at crucial moments. ” “When they do, that does not diminish the good work and sacrificial service of their professions as a whole,” the report says.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates. .
From: insider
URL: https://www.insider.com/376-officers-were-at-uvalde-elementary-school-over-hour-report-2022-7
