Parents of children killed in the Uvalde school shooting called a City Council meeting Thursday after an investigator hired by the city detailed the findings of a report on the massacre that defended the police response. He abruptly left the room.
Grieving parents tearfully report after investigators gave some praise for the actions of local police in response to the May 24, 2022, shooting at Robb Elementary School that killed 19 young students and two teachers. He slammed the book down and yelled, “You coward.”
The report, written and filed by Austin-based investigator and former police officer Jesse Prado, acknowledged that the 400 police officers and law enforcement officers that day made many mistakes, but that the gunman and Despite waiting more than an hour before being confronted, they were found not to have violated policy.
“They said they did it in good faith. Is that what you call good faith? They stood there for 77 minutes,” said Kimberly Mata, whose 10-year-old daughter Lexi was killed by the gunman. = Rubio said after the presentation.
The Prado newspaper also said the officers showed “immense strength” and “lateral thinking” when they gave up firing into a darkened classroom after coming under fire from a gunman armed with an AR-style rifle. praised.
He left immediately after his speech, but returned shortly after his family shouted, “Bring him back!” During an emotional city council meeting.
Later, family members of the victims, the city council and Urubade police were given time to speak as they tearfully skewered the report.
“My daughter was left for dead,” Ruben Zamora said. “These police officers signed up to do the job. They didn’t do it.”
His daughter Maya was shot three times in the classroom and taken to the hospital in critical condition. She underwent countless surgeries, and she spent 66 days in the hospital, becoming the last shooting victim to be discharged. According to the American Statesman in Austin.
At least one city council member also criticized the report.
City Councilman Hector Luevano said he was “baffled” and “insulted” by the findings.
“These families deserve more. This community deserves more,” he said. “I do not accept this report.”
The Prado newspaper detailed multiple failures by local, state and federal law enforcement officers who responded to the shooting, including communication problems, lack of training for the shooter, lack of equipment and infiltration of the classroom where the shooter was located. This included delays.
“There was a problem with communication and lack of communication throughout the day. Officers had no way of knowing what was being planned or what was being said,” Prado said. “If they had bulletproof shields, that would have been enough to get them to the door.”
He also found that the Uvalde Police Department’s SWAT team had not been consistently trained since before the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.
Many similar failures were detailed in a scathing 600-page investigation into the shooting released by the Justice Department in January. The department said the officers acted with “no urgency” to establish a command post and chain of command, and that the subject was barricaded and separated from children in the same classroom even as the shooting continued. Despite making frantic 911 calls, the suspect mistakenly assumed the victim was barricaded.
“If law enforcement had followed generally accepted practice during mass shootings and followed and restrained the shooter immediately, lives would have been saved and people would have survived,” the federal report said. Attorney General Merrick Garland said at the time.
At least five police officers at the scene of what was one of the deadliest mass shootings in the nation’s history lost their jobs after the confrontation, including school police chief Pete Arredondo.
No officers have been criminally charged, but District Attorney Christina Mitchell is conducting an ongoing criminal investigation into the law enforcement response. Some police officers and other officials have already been called to testify.
with post wire
