 |
| Photo Credit: APl |
Almost 400 law enforcement officials arrived to the scene of a mass shooting incidence at Robb Elementary school Uvalde but they “failed to prioritize saving innocent lives over their own safety,” according to a report released Sunday.
The damning report documents the more than an hour showdown between the gunman and the unarmed students which resulted in the deaths of 19 pupils and two of their teachers before the gunman was finally shot dead by officers.
The nearly
80-page report criticized both state and federal law enforcement in Uvalde elementary
school who failed to stop the gunman despite being heavily armed, The
Associated Press reports.
“At Robb
Elementary, law enforcement responders failed to adhere to their active shooter
training, and they failed to prioritize saving innocent lives over their own
safety,” the report said.
The gunman
fired approximately 142 rounds inside the building — and it is “almost certain”
that at least 100 shots came before any officer entered, according to the
report, which laid out in damning detail numerous failures. Among them:
— The
commander of a Border Patrol tactical team waited for a bullet-proof shield and
working master key for the classroom, which may have not even been needed,
before entering the classroom.
— No one
assumed command despite scores of officers being on the scene.
— A Uvalde
Police Department officer said he heard about 911 calls that had come inside
from the classroom, and that his understanding was the officers on one side of
the building knew there were victims trapped inside. Still, no one tried to
breach the classroom.
The report was written by an investigative committee from the Texas House of Representatives and released to family members Sunday, according to The Associated Press.
The mayor of
Uvalde announced Sunday that the city’s acting police chief Lt. Mariano Pargas at
the school when the horrific massacre took place has been placed on
administrative leave to determine whether he was responsible for taking command
after a gunman entered the school, The Associated Press reported.
The report documents how 376 law enforcement officers massed at the school with federal and state law enforcement making the majority which included nearly 150 U.S. Border Patrol agents and 91 state police officials.
“Other than
the attacker, the Committee did not find any ‘villains’ in the course of its
investigation,” the report said. “There is no one to whom we can attribute
malice or ill motives. Instead, we found systemic failures and egregiously poor
decision making.”
According to
the report, many of the hundreds of law enforcement responders who rushed to the
school were better trained and equipped than the school district police – that the
head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, the state police force initially
blamed for failing to enter the classroom to confront the gunman, The Associated
reported.
“In this
crisis, no responder seized the initiative to establish an incident command
post,” the report read.
On the 24th
of May 2021, a gunman entered an elementary school in Southern Texas and opened
fire on students with brute force. He was later shot dead by police officers.