A scathing report released Sunday by a Texas House committee investigating the Uvalde school shooting blamed multiple failures by those in positions of power – including almost 400 law enforcers who converged on the scene – for not halting the massacre.
The preliminary report describes “systemic failures and egregious poor decision making”: how police disregarded department active-shooter training, how the school district did not adhere fully to its safety plan and how the shooter’s family did not recognize warning signs before the rampage.
The committee held closed-door meetings over the past month investigating the shooting that left 19 children and two teachers dead. Outrage skyrocketed over the response of authorities who waited more than an hour before breaching a fourth grade classroom – even as terrified students dialed 911 for help.
The Austin American-Statesman, part of the USA TODAY Network, and TV station KVUE exclusively obtained and released hallway surveillance video last week of the shooter and responding law enforcement officers.
Families of the victims received the committee’s report Sunday, according to committee chairman Rep. Dustin Burrows.
Here’s what we know.
What is in the report?
The nearly 80-page report details numerous “shortcomings and failures” by the Uvalde school district and various law enforcement agencies and officers.
The document details a “regrettable culture of noncompliance by school personnel” in propping doors open and circumventing locks, as well as a lack of adherence to active-shooter training by law enforcement responders who “failed to prioritize saving the lives of innocent victims over their own safety.”
The majority of responders at the school were federal and state law enforcement, according to the report. Authorities included 150 U.S. Border Patrol agents and 91 state police officials.
The report cites a breakdown in communication at the scene and a confusion about leadership among police officers from the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District – but extends fault to other law enforcement agencies.
“Despite an obvious atmosphere of chaos, the ranking officers of other responding agencies did not approach the Uvalde CISD chief of police or anyone else perceived to be in command to point out the lack of and need for a command post, or to offer that specific assistance,” the report reads.
The investigative committee attempted to answer many questions about what happened during the shooting May 24, including why law enforcement officers waited more than an hour to enter the classroom where the gunman was.
Though the full investigation hasn’t been completed, the preliminary report provides initial details gathered from testimony to families and community members, many of whom have voiced frustration over conflicting law enforcement descriptions surrounding 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 victim Layla Salazar, said of law enforcement officers on Sunday.
The report gathered information from interviews with 33 witnesses and 39 informal interviews, including administrators with the Texas Department of Public Safety, officers from the Uvalde Police Department, Mayor Don McLaughlin and Sheriff Ruben Nolasco.
How did the shooting narrative change?
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott initially praised law enforcement officers for their actions during the shooting and praised their “amazing courage by running toward gunfire.” He walked back his statement after it was revealed that officers waited more than an hour after the shooter entered the school to storm the classroom.
Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw called the police response an “abject failure” that put the lives of officers ahead of the lives of children at a state Senate hearing in June. McCraw blamed the school district’s police chief, Pete Arredondo, the incident commander, for stopping officers from quickly confronting the gunman.
More than 100 of the 142 rounds the shooter fired inside the school were shot before officers entered, the report found.
A different report obtained by the Statesman this month – written by Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training and sought by the Department of Public Safety – found a Uvalde police officer aimed his rifle at the gunman before he entered the school but waited for a supervisor’s permission to fire.
What did the hallway video show?
The video obtained by the Statesman and KVUE showed the delayed law enforcement response.
In the video, officers walk back and forth in the hallway without entering or attempting to enter the classroom where the shooter was. Even after hearing at least four shots from the classrooms 45 minutes after police arrived, officers did not move to enter the room. They rushed into the classroom and killed the gunman an hour and 14 minutes after police arrived on the scene.
Law enforcement experts who reviewed the video for the Statesman called police action “disastrous” and “inexcusable.”
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The Texas House committee pushed for the 77-minute videotape to be released to the public, and the Department of Public Safety wanted to release the video as well, saying it would promote transparency without interfering with investigations.
Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell Busbee objected to releasing the video and instructed the DPS to keep it confidential as investigations continued.
The video that the House committee will make available to families and the public Sunday will not include footage of the gunman walking into the school and the view from the hallway of the gunman firing his way into the classrooms. The video the Statesman obtained includes that footage.
Contributing: Tony Plohetski, Austin American-Statesman; The Associated Press
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