A US Justice Department report released on Thursday (January 18) found the police officers responding to the deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas in 2022 "demonstrated no urgency" in setting up a command post and failed to treat the killings as an active shooter situation, which was considered one of the deadliest massacres at a school in American history.
The 600-page report on the Robb Elementary School shooting identified a vast array of "cascading failures" that federal officials say contributed to the crisis lasting far longer than it should have, even as terrified students inside classrooms called 911 and agonized parents begged officers to go in.
"The victims and survivors of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School deserved better," US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. "The law enforcement response at Robb Elementary on May 24, 2022 - and the response by officials in the hours and days after - was a failure. As a consequence of failed leadership, training, and policies, 33 students and three of their teachers - many of whom had been shot - were trapped in a room with an active shooter for over an hour as law enforcement officials remained outside."
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Uvalde Police as Laughing Stock of Law Enforcement
According to the Associated Press, the Justice Department report galvanized the public's understanding of how police in Uvalde failed to stop an attack that killed 19 children and two school staff members.
In the months since the beginning of the Justice Department's review on the incident, footage showing police waiting in a hallway outside the classrooms where the gunman opened fire has become the target of national ridicule.
Uvalde is still reeling from the shooting almost two years on, with some still struggling with the trauma left by the deaths of the victims. The community also remains divided on questions of accountability for what the officers did and have not done.
One of the glaring failures of law enforcement officers on that day was their failure to "prioritize saving innocent lives over their own safety," such as the officers heading for cover when the shooter fired from inside the classroom.
"An active shooter with access to victims should never be considered and treated as a barricaded subject," the report added, with the word "never" emphasized in italics.
Garland went to Uvalde on Wednesday (January 17) ahead of the release of the report, visiting the murals of the victims that have been painted around the town center. The Justice Department also briefed family members of its report before publicizing it the next day.
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