What to know about the Justice Department’s report on police failures in the Uvalde school shooting
A Justice Department report released Thursday details a host of failures by police responding to the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, as children waited desperately for more than an hour before officers stormed a classroom to shoot the gunman to get.
The federal review, launched just days after the May 2022 shooting, offers a scathing look at police missteps after a gunman opened fire at Robb Elementary School. It was not a criminal investigation, but one of the most extensive investigations into the police’s failure to stop the attack. Nineteen students and two teachers were killed in the shooting.
“The victims and survivors of the shooting at Robb Elementary on May 24, 2022, deserved better,” Attorney General Merrick Garland told reporters in Uvalde.
Local officials are still weighing whether to file charges.
Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:
The Justice Department concluded that the main error was that police did not treat the crisis as an active shooter situation and did not quickly engage the shooter. Initially, several officers approached the classrooms where students were trapped with the gunman, but retreated after he shot at them.
Law enforcement authorities then treated the situation as if the shooter were barricaded, dead, or otherwise contained, focusing on calling in more SWAT equipment and evacuating surrounding classrooms rather than engaging the shooter and saving lives.
“First responders on scene, including those with specific leadership responsibilities, did not coordinate immediate access to classrooms, which was contrary to generally accepted active shooter response practices to immediately engage the subject to further save lives,” the report said.
The report includes excerpts from a 911 call from terrified 9- and 10-year-old children trapped with the gunman as police waited just outside classrooms. “I do not wanna die. My teacher is dead,” said one of them. At that point, students and their teachers had been trapped in classrooms with the gunman for 37 minutes. It took another thirteen minutes after the call ended before the survivors were rescued.
There were numerous signs that should have prompted police leaders to send officers sooner, the report states, including the victims’ wounds and the gunman firing about 45 shots “in the presence of law enforcement.”
“For 77 painful, harrowing minutes, children and staff were trapped with an active shooter,” the report said. “They experienced unimaginable horror. The survivors witnessed unspeakable violence and the deaths of classmates and teachers.”
The report makes a slew of recommendations, including that officers responding to such a crisis should prioritize neutralizing the shooter and helping victims who are harmed.
“An active shooter with access to victims should never be viewed and treated as a barricaded subject,” the report says. Evacuations should be limited to those in immediate danger and “not detract from the priority of eliminating the threat,” the Justice Department said. And officers should be prepared to engage the shooter “with only the tools they have on them,” even if they only have a standard firearm, the report said.
Garland said if law enforcement had followed best practices, “lives would have been saved and people would have survived.”
Other recommendations address coordination among agencies responding to shootings, releasing information to the public and providing proper support and trauma services.
The Justice Department also outlined shortcomings in communications, including instances of incomplete, inaccurate or inconsistent release of information that led to ongoing mistrust in the community.
The report quotes the district attorney as telling family members that authorities had to wait for autopsy reports before filing death reports. Relatives who had not been told that children had died shouted back, “What, are our children dead? No no!”
Other examples included injured children, some with gunshot wounds, being loaded onto a bus while the building was being evacuated; parents spent hours removing shards of glass from their children because they were not screened before being released; an adult victim who was carried to a walkway outside the school to receive medical attention and who subsequently died; and untrained hospital staff telling family members that their loved ones had died.
The report also highlights misinformation from authorities, including blaming a staff member for an open door that allowed the gunman to enter the building – which later turned out to be false. Some officers told frantic families that a gunman was in custody, when that was not the case.
Family members, many of whom were briefed on the federal report before its release, had mixed reactions. Some told the news media they were grateful that the federal investigation supported their criticism, but many had hoped the report would include a recommendation for federal charges against those most criticized.
When President Joe Biden was asked about the report on Thursday, he said the federal government would do its best to implement the recommendations: “But I don’t know if there is any criminal liability.”
Velma Lisa Duran, whose sister Irma Garcia was among the slain teachers, told The Associated Press on Thursday that she was grateful for the federal agency’s work but disappointed that local prosecutors have not yet filed charges.
“A report doesn’t matter if there are no consequences for actions so despicable, murderous and evil,” Duran said. “What do you want us to do with another report? … Take it to court,” she said.
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Richer reported from Boston and Lauer reported from Philadelphia. Associated Press reporters Lindsay Whitehurst and Eric Tucker in Washington, D.C.; Jake Bleiberg in Dallas; and Acacia Coronado in Uvalde, Texas, contributed to this report.