Some of the 21 victims at Robb Elementary School, including 19 children, likely “could have been saved” on May 24 if they had received medical attention sooner, while police waited more than an hour before breaching the fourth-grade classroom, an assessment by an educator found center at the University of Texas for active shooter situations. The last victim of the Uvalde shooting was buried at 00:21 The report is yet another damning assessment of how police failed to act on opportunities that could have saved lives in what has become the deadliest US school shooting since the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in 2012. “A reasonable officer would have considered this situation active and devised a plan to engage the suspect,” read the report released by the university’s Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training program. The authors of the 26-page report said their findings were based on video taken from the school, police body cameras, testimony from officers at the scene and statements from investigators. Among their findings:
It appeared that no officer waiting in the hallway during the shooting ever tested to see if the classroom door was locked. The head of the Texas State Police also blamed the officers on the scene for not checking the doors. Officers had “weapons (including rifles), body armor (which may or may not have been rated to stop weapons), training and reserves. Casualties in the ranks had none of these things.” When officers finally entered the classroom at 12:50 p.m. — more than an hour after the shooting began — they were no better equipped to deal with the gunman than they had been up to that point. “Effective incident command” never appears to have been established among the multiple law enforcement agencies that responded to the shooting.
The gunman, an 18-year-old man with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, entered the building at 11:33 a.m. towards the entrance of the western hall. The officer asked a supervisor for permission to open fire, but the supervisor “either did not listen or responded very slowly,” the report said. By the time the officer turned back to the gunman, he had already entered “non-stop,” according to the report. State police chief calls Uvalde’s response a “huge failure” 03:37 The officer was 148 yards from the door, which the report said was within range of his rifle, and reportedly said he was concerned that an errant shot could have penetrated the school and injured students inside. “Ultimately, the decision to use deadly force always rests with the officer who will use the force. If the officer was not confident that he could hit both his target and his setting if he missed, he should not have fired,” he says. the exhibition. reading. The report is one of multiple fact-finding reviews launched in the wake of the worst school shooting in Texas history. A panel formed by Texas lawmakers also interviewed more than 20 people, including officers who were on the scene behind closed doors for several weeks. On Wednesday, the commission said Uvalde County Sheriff Ruben Nolasco refused to meet with them and sent a letter trying to compel his testimony. Nolasco did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. The report follows testimony last month in which Col. Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, told the state Senate that the police response was a “major failure.” He particularly blamed Pete Arredondo, saying that as the commander on the scene, the Uvalde schools police chief made “terrible decisions” and prevented officers from dealing with the gunman sooner. Arredondo tried to defend his actions, telling the Texas Tribune that he did not consider himself the head of operations and that he assumed someone else had taken control of the law enforcement response. He said he did not have the police and campus radios, but used his cell phone to request tactical gear, a sniper and classroom keys. According to his report released Wednesday, Arredondo and another Uvalde police officer spent 13 minutes in the school hallway during the shooting discussing tactical options, whether to use snipers and how to get into classroom windows. Uvalde police chief resigns from city council 00:23 “They also discussed who has the keys, test keys, the possibility of the door being locked, and whether children and teachers are dying or have died,” the report states. McCraw said police had enough officers and firepower at the scene of the Uvalde school massacre to stop the gunman three minutes after he entered the building and would have found the classroom door where he was locked unlocked if they had bothered to check. An attorney for Arredondo and a spokeswoman for the Uvalde Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Arredondo is on leave from his job with the Uvalde Unified Independent School District and resigned from his position as a city councilor last week. Public leaders, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, initially praised the police response to Uvalde. Abbott said officers reacted quickly and ran toward the shooting with “amazing courage” to take out the killer, saving lives. He later said he was misled. In the days and weeks after the shooting, authorities gave conflicting and incorrect accounts of what happened. The consequences caused mutual recriminations and rifts between local and state authorities. On Tuesday, Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin and state Sen. Roland Gutierrez released a letter asking Abbott to transfer management of a victim relief fund from the district attorney’s office to the Texas Department of Emergency Management. They wrote that they have received numerous complaints about District Attorney Christina Mitchell Busbee, “including a failure to timely deliver victim compensation resources to those in need.”
Shooting school in Uvalde, Texas
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