According to the first comprehensive report published on Sunday, 17 July, of the police response to the deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, which left 19 children and two adults dead, the blame for the lack of action lies not only with the school police chief, but also with hundreds of state and federal officers who were at the scene but did not act.
The 77-page report, written by a special Texas House committee, cited "systemic failures" that left Robb Elementary School with inadequate security, with confused police officers grappling with poor intel.
The report says that almost 400 officers responded to the emergency call made from the school but the decision to finally confront the shooter was made only by a small group of officers.
This group included specially trained Border Patrol agents and a deputy sheriff from an adjacent county. This means that other officers at the scene could have responded to the shooter much better compared to what actually happened.
The lawmakers who drafted the report also stated that the emergency situation was "chaotic" due to the "lackadaisical approach" of the officers towards neutralising the shooter.
Acting Chief Put on Administrative Leave
A detailed timeline, found here, shows that the shooter had more than an hour to carry out his carnage inside the school.
"If there’s only one thing that I can tell you is, there were multiple systemic failures. Several officers in the hallway or in that building knew or should have known there was dying in that classroom, and they should have done more, acted with urgency," State Representative Dustin Burrows, who headed the investigation, said.
Uvalde'a mayor has said that the acting chief during the shooting, Lt Mariano Pargas, has been put on administrative leave after the report was published.
New Footage Shows Cops Retreating After Hearing Gunshots
The local government has begun its own investigation as well, even releasing body camera footage that document the actions of officers at the scene. The footage shows officers retreating after they heard gunshots.
In one of the deadliest grade school shootings in a decade, an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 students and two adults in an elementary school in Texas on 24 May.
Law enforcement authorities killed the assailant, identified as Salvador Ramos.
"As a nation, we have to ask, when in God's name are we going to stand up to gun lobbying? When in God's name will we do what we all know in our gut that needs to be done?" US President Joe Biden had said in response to the massacre.
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