Gov. Abbott: Initial interim report on Uvalde shooting ‘beyond disturbing’
Nearly two months after the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, the Texas House of Representatives released the findings of its initial report, which Gov. Greg Abbott says, “are beyond disturbing.”
The 82-page report published Sunday by the House Investigative Committee on the Robb Elementary shooting states failures existed across the board, including by the school, school district, and law enforcement before and on May 24 when the shooting occurred.
“There is no one to whom we can attribute malice or ill motives. Instead, we found systemic failures and egregious poor decision making,” the report states.
The committee found that Robb Elementary “didn’t adequately prepare for the risk of an armed intruder,” including a “regrettable culture of noncompliance by school personnel who frequently propped doors open and deliberately circumvented locks.”
The school district also “didn’t treat the maintenance of doors and locks with appropriate urgency,” especially in light of the increase in bailouts of “human traffickers trying to outrun the police,” the report states. From February to May of this year, there were 50 bailouts in the vicinity of the school, the report notes.
The school was in violation of its own policy, noting that “no one had locked any of the three exterior doors to the west building of Robb Elementary,” it states.
But the most egregious errors were made by multiple law enforcement agencies, the committee found: “Law enforcement responders failed to adhere to their active shooter training, and they failed to prioritize saving the lives of innocent victims over their own safety.”