Those were among a series of missed opportunities, mistakes and “key issues” that, if handled differently, could have helped avert the tragedy, according to the first part of a report by the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center ( ALERRT). provider of active shooter and assault training at the University of Texas. Two unlocked doors, a lack of effective command, officers’ positions inside and a loss of momentum after authorities entered the building were other issues highlighted in the report. The assessment, released Wednesday, was created using school video, third-party video, body cameras, radio logs, officers’ oral testimony and statements from investigators. The report should not yet be considered a “definitive or final report, as all investigative options have not been exhausted,” he added. Another part of the report, which has not yet been released, will address issues of who led the law enforcement response to the massacre. The first part noted a “lack of effective (incident) command likely to affect law enforcement response. Uvalde School District Police Chief Pedro “Pete” Arredondo, who was identified by state authorities as the on-scene commander during the attack, told the Texas Tribune last month that he did not consider himself the commander of the incident and assumed that another official had taken control of it. the greatest response.
Report: Once inside, the officers lost their momentum
The first officers who entered the building after the gunman correctly moved toward the active fire, the report said. But after the gunman, who was inside the adjacent classrooms where the massacre unfolded, began firing toward the classroom doors, the officers retreated, the report said. “Ideally, the officers would have returned accurate fire at the attacker when the assailant began firing at them,” it said. To do that, officers could use a window that was in the center of each classroom door, according to the report. “Holding the position or even pushing forward to a better spot to deliver accurate return fire would undoubtedly have been dangerous, and there would have been a strong possibility that some of the officers would have been shot or even killed,” the assessment added. . “However, the officers could probably also stop the offender and then focus on immediate medical care for the injured.” Instead, after the officers retreated, it took more than an hour “to regain momentum” and reach the victims, the report said. “While we do not have definitive information at this time, it is possible that some of the people who died during this event could have been saved if they had received faster medical attention,” it added. Having teams of officers on both sides of the school hallway was another problem, according to the evaluation. If the suspect had walked out of the classroom, officers on both sides of the aisle likely would have opened fire, creating a “crossfire situation” in which they could have shot each other, he said. “The teams should have communicated quickly and the officers at one end of the corridor should have retreated and repositioned themselves,” the report said.
The report notes that two doors were not locked
Two doors that should have been locked were also flagged by the ALERRT report: the exterior door of the building through which the gunman entered the school and the classroom door he later used. The building’s exterior door had been opened by a teacher and then closed by the same teacher before the gunman approached, the report said, echoing earlier statements by Texas authorities. But the teacher did not check that the door was locked, so the attacker was able to “immediately gain access to the building,” the report said. But even if the door was locked, the report added, it had a steel frame with a large glass insert — which was not ballistic glass and had no film — that the gunman could shoot and then use to open the door. door. Once inside, the shooter was also able to enter adjacent classrooms, ALERRT experts noted. The lock in one of the rooms was “reported to be damaged multiple times,” according to an investigator cited in the evaluation. The suspect was not seen at any point engaging a locking mechanism on the classroom door, and “based on this, we believe the lock to room 111 was never engaged,” the report said.
