Report finds ‘systemic failures’ in police response to Texas school mass shooting

Calls for police accountability have grown in Texas after a new investigative report found "systemic failures" in law enforcement’s response to a mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde that left 19 children and two teachers dead.

The nearly 80-page report, released Sunday by a committee from the Texas House of Representatives, was the first to criticize both state and federal law enforcement and not just local authorities, for their appallingly hesitant and haphazard response to the May 24 massacre at Robb Elementary School.

The report, the most comprehensive and detailed account of the shooting, found that nearly 400 law enforcement officials rushed to the school, but their response was marred by “egregiously poor decision-making,” resulting in more than an hour of chaos before the gunman, identified as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, was finally confronted and killed.

The gunman fired approximately 142 rounds inside the building, the report said, adding that it was “almost certain” now that at least 100 of those shots were fired before any officer entered the room.

The overwhelming majority of responders were federal and state law enforcement, including nearly 150 US Border Patrol agents and 91 state police officials, according to the Texas Tribune, which reviewed the report before it was released to the public.

Families of the victims also received copies of the damning report, which came following weeks of closed-door interviews with more than 40 people, including witnesses and officers present on the scene of the shooting.

"It's a joke. They're a joke. They've got no business wearing a badge. None of them do," Vincent Salazar, grandfather of 11-year-old Layla Salazer, said Sunday.

The report, the result if one of many investigations into the shooting, laid out in detail numerous other failures by law enforcement.

—No officer took command of the scene.

— The commander of a Border Patrol tactical team waited for a bullet-proof shield and working master key for the classroom before entering the classroom, where the shooting was unfolding.

— A Uvalde Police Department officer said that, based on 911 calls coming from inside the classroom, the responding officers on one side of the building knew there were victims trapped inside, but failed to breach the room.

Police waited over an hour before responding to Texas school shooting: Video

The four-minute video from 24 May shows two law enforcement officers approaching the classrooms minutes after the gunman does and then run back as the sounds of gunfire ring out in the hallway.

The report concluded that some officers waited because they relied on bad information while others “had enough information to know better,” suggesting that they failed to “prioritize saving innocent lives over their own safety.”

The findings set in motion at least one fallout, with Lt. Mariano Pargas, Uvalde’s acting police chief at the time of the shooting, being placed on administrative leave.

Calls have grown for authorities to release all body camera and surveillance footage from the shooting.

Last week, a Texas newspaper released parts of the nearly 80 minutes between the moment the gunman entered the school building with a semi-automatic rifle and the time when he was shot and killed by law enforcement.

The footage showed local police and federal agents milling in the hallway outside the classrooms for nearly an hour before finally breaching a classroom where the gunman had opened fire.

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