In this photo from surveillance video provided by the Uvalde Independent School District through the Austin American-Statesman, authorities respond to the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, 2022 .
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In this photo from surveillance video provided by the Uvalde Independent School District through the Austin American-Statesman, authorities respond to the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, 2022 .
AP
UVALDE, Texas – 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 shooting. The gun was eventually confronted and killed, according to a report from investigators released Sunday.
The report is nearly 80 pages long, obtained by many mediawas the first to criticize both state and federal law enforcement, and not just the local government in a Texas town, for the surprise of armed officers when a gunman opened fire. in a fourth grade classroom.
The report – the most complete account of the hesitant and chaotic response to the May 24 massacre at Robb Elementary School – was written by an investigative committee from the Texas House of Representatives and released to the public. family members on Sunday.
According to the Texas Tribune, which reviewed the report before its scheduled release to the public later in the day, the majority of those responding 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.
“It’s a joke. They’re a joke. They don’t have any business wearing badges. None of them do,” Vincent Salazar, the grandfather of 11-year-old Layla Salazer, said Sunday. .
The report follows weeks of closed-door interviews with more than 40 people, including witnesses and law enforcement who were at the scene of the shooting.
The flowers piled high in the downtown square were removed on Sunday, leaving a few stuffed animal maps scattered around the fountain along with photographs of some of the children who had perished. .
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 tactical experts at Texas State University alleges that a Uvalde police officer had a chance to stop the gunman before he even got inside the AR-15-equipped campus.
But in an example of conflicting claims and disputed accounts since the shooting, Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin has said that 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.
