UVALDE, Texas — U.S. Border Patrol agents who went to the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, failed to get leadership on the ground in May 2022 and lacked adequate training to handle one of the deadliest classroom attacks in the nation’s history, a federal report released Thursday found.
The investigation by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Professional Responsibility is the first to specifically examine the actions of the 188 Border Patrol agents who converged on Robb Elementary School, more than any other law enforcement agency. A teenage gunman wielding an AR-style rifle killed 19 students and two teachers in a fourth-grader’s classroom before a group led by a Border Patrol tactical team entered the room and fatally shot him, investigators said.
Since the shooting, Border Patrol has largely avoided the harsh criticism that Texas state troopers and local police have faced for not confronting the gunman sooner. The gunman sat in the South Texas classroom for more than 70 minutes, while a growing number of police, state troopers and federal agents remained outside in the hallways.
Two Uvalde school police officers accused of inaction were charged this summer and have pleaded not guilty.
Relatives of the victims have long sought accountability for the slow response by police in the South Texas city.
More than 90 state police officers were on scene, as well as school and city police. Multiple federal and government investigations have exposed a range of problems in law enforcement training, communications, leadership and technology, and have questioned whether officers value their own lives over those of children and teachers.
A report released by state lawmakers about two months after the shooting, “scandalously bad decision making” by law enforcement. And among the criticisms included in a report by the U.S. Department of Justice report released earlier this year was that there was “no urgency” to set up a command center, creating confusion among law enforcement officials about who was in charge. That report highlighted problems with training, communication, leadership and technology that federal officials said contributed to the crisis lasting much longer than necessary.
As terrified students and teachers called 911 from classrooms, dozens of officers stood in the hallway trying to figure out what to do. Desperate parents gathered outside the building begged them to come in.
A release last month across the city from a vast collection of audio and video recordings from that day, including 911 calls from students in the classroom. One surviving student can be heard pleading for help in a series of 911 calls, whispering into the phone that there were “many” bodies and telling the operator, “Please, I don’t want to die. My teacher is dead. Oh, my God.”
The 18-year-old shooter entered the school at 11:33 a.m., first by firing from the hallway, then by entering two adjacent fourth-grade classrooms. The first responding officers arrived at the school several minutes later. They approached the classrooms but retreated when the shooter opened fire.
Finally, at 12:50 p.m., a group led by a Border Patrol tactical team entered one of the classrooms and shot the gunman dead.
Jesse Rizo, whose cousin Jacklyn Cazares was among the students killed, said he had not seen the report but was told by family members. He was disappointed to learn that the report did not hold anyone accountable.
“We expected certain outcomes from these studies, and it was always a disappointment,” said Rizo, who serves on the Uvalde school board.
Two of the responding officers are now facing criminal charges. Former Uvalde School Police Chief Pete Arredondo and former school official Adrian Gonzales have pleaded not guilty to multiple charges of child abandonment and endangerment. A suspended Texas state trooper in Uvalde has been restored.
Last week, Arredondo asked a judge to dismiss the charges. He has said he should not have been considered incident commander and is “scapegoat” to take the blame for the failure of law enforcement that day.
The Uvalde Police Department reported this week that a staff member has been placed on paid leave after the department conducted an internal investigation into the discovery of additional video following the massive release of audio and video recordings last month.
The victims’ families have filed for $500 million in damages federal lawsuit against law enforcement officers who responded to the shooting.