Layers of failure build before, during, after Uvalde

2022-06-26 -

“And let me emphasize something that I know you all know.

But the reality is, as horrible as what happened, it could have been worse. The reason it was not worse is because law enforcement officials did what they do.

“They showed amazing courage by running toward gunfire for the singular purpose of trying to save lives. And it is a fact that because of their quick response, getting on the scene, being able to respond to the gunman and eliminate the gunman, they were able to save lives.”

Gov. Greg Abbott, May 25,

Uvalde news conference

How Texas Gov. Greg Abbott could be so misinformed the day after the second-deadliest school shooting in our nation’s history is a question that demands an honest answer.

But his words are as significant as they are hollow because they set forth a cascade of misinformation and obfuscation about the law enforcement response May 24 at Robb Elementary School, where an 18year-old gunman murdered 19 children and two teachers.

Nearly five weeks later, we now know law enforcement officers did not show “amazing courage” by “running toward gunfire” to save lives. Instead, they waited in the school hallway for more than an hour, amassing equipment, as the gunman periodically fired shots and children desperately called 911, as a dying teacher spoke with her husband, a school police officer on the scene who was denied the chance to save her. A grieving public wonders how many lives might have been saved. For families of the children and teachers murdered, words are inadequate.

Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw testified Tuesday to a Senate committee, firmly casting blame: “The only thing stopping a hallway of dedicated officers from entering room 111 and 112 was the on-scene commander, who decided to place the lives of officers before the lives of children.”

McCraw’s damning comments, aimed at Pedro “Pete” Arredondo, the embattled police chief of Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District who is now on administrative leave, may prove definitive in understanding the bumbling, tragic law enforcement response in Uvalde. But his scope is too narrow, his assigned blame too tidy. The failure here is widespread, not limited to Arredondo, who told the Texas Tribune, incredulously, he did not know he was in charge.

While McCraw’s testimony was powerful, he has been no point of light in this dark moment. He initially provided inaccurate information. His statement to senators that DPS troopers at the school “did not have the authority by law” to take command of the scene is painfully weak given the moral and humanitarian urgency.

While the law enforcement response has sparked our nation’s outrage and demands accountability, it is also just one layer of failure in this tragedy. For years, federal and state policymakers have failed to prevent mass shootings. In the aftermath of Uvalde, state and local officials have failed to provide accurate and timely information. And once again, Republican lawmakers have failed to tighten lax gun laws. At every turn in this tragedy, adults have failed Uvalde’s children. We see five layers of failure.

A faltering of political will

The first is a failure to prevent mass shootings and other

forms of gun violence. Before we turn our attention to the law enforcement response, let’s reflect on what we are asking police to respond to.

Yes, the 1 hour, 14 minutes and 8 seconds it took for law enforcement to enter the adjoining classrooms and kill the shooter is horrific, but between 11:33 a.m. and 11:36 a.m., the killer fired more than 100 rounds. Wielding an AR-style rifle, purchased just after his 18th birthday, he slaughtered children and then overwhelmed officers who were on the scene within three minutes.

In a mass shooting, three minutes is an eternity. Before officers amassed in the hallway, before Arredondo fumbled for a key the Express-News reported he did not need to open the classroom door, so much of the carnage had occurred. If we banned these types of weapons or — at minimum — raised the purchase age, a tragedy like this is far less likely to happen.

But Republican Texas lawmakers have refused to consider such reforms, much less universal background checks, red flag laws and safe storage requirements. They allow bad actors to abuse the Second Amendment. This is the original failure. Don’t lose sight of it.

When helpers don’t help

Fred Rogers once said, “When I was a boy, and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ ”

But here, the helpers failed. They waited for shields. They waited for SWAT. They waited for rifles. They waited as children called for help. This is the second failure.

It was an “abject failure and antithetical to everything we

have learned over the past two decades,” McCraw said at the Senate hearing.

The guiding tactical response learned from the Columbine High School shooting in 1999 that killed 13 is that officers should not wait for SWAT. They go in, despite the risk of being outgunned, to stop the killing.

As Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar emailed deputies after the Uvalde massacre: “In an Active Shooter scenario, end the threat FIRST!”

In Uvalde, we know the killer entered the school at 11:33 a.m. and began firing shots. We know police, armed with rifles, were on the scene within three minutes. We know Arredondo arrived at 11:36 a.m. We know that as early as 11:41 a.m. officers could hear shots from within the classroom and that by 11:48 a.m. UCISD police officer Ruben Ruiz was on the scene, telling other officers his wife, Eva Mireles, had been shot. Police would detain Ruiz and take his gun.

We know that by 11:50 a.m. an officer can be heard saying, “Chief is in charge,” and we know that minutes later a DPS agent said, “If there’s kids in there, we need to go in there.” But he was told that Arredondo would decide that.

No one would try to open the door. In a mass shooting, every second counts. It took law enforcement 4,448 seconds to breach the classroom door.

Misleading the public

Almost immediately, officials praised the law enforcement response, wrapping officers in the rhetoric of valor. This is the third failure: misleading the public.

“It could have been worse,” Abbott said during the May 25 press conference.

Such careless, flaccid language. Even more troubling was his certainty, at the time, that law enforcement officers capably intervened.

“It was a fact that because of their quick response,” he said, “they were able to save lives.”

But it was not a fact. Abbott would later say he was “livid” for being “misled.” But who misled him? Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin Jr. has asserted it was DPS, but a spokeswoman for Abbott would not elaborate.

Other major details have been corrected. No “brave” school resource officer “approached” and “engaged” the shooter outside the school, as McCraw said May 25. A teacher did not prop open a door, allowing the shooter access, as McCraw also asserted. In fact, the teacher closed the door — as she called 911 — but it did not lock.

And then there is Arredondo, who said he was not in charge, has asserted classroom doors were locked and wasted precious time searching for a master key to gain entry. We have since learned the doors likely were unlocked, but no one tried to open them, and Arredondo was very much viewed as in command.

We teach children to speak with honesty and take responsibility for their actions. But we see none of this in the adults now shifting blame over Uvalde.

Hassling the press

This brings us to the fourth failure: intimidating the press and refusing to honor public records requests.

With media descended upon Uvalde, police and bikers from across the state obstructed and threatened reporters, including those from the Express-News.

At funerals, law enforcement officers ordered reporters off sidewalks and public streets, and they blocked photographers trying to take pictures from public places. Bikers got in their faces.

There was an obvious tension at play. As journalists questioned the official police-response narrative, law enforcement sought to shut them out and deny access. In doing so, they shut out the public from greater understanding. Intimate portraits of the children and teachers open our hearts, just as an accurate understanding of what happened informs potential policies.

“The news reporters are about getting to the truth, and that’s why they’re being obstructed and treated poorly, because there are some folks, apparently, who don’t want the truth to come out,” Kelley Shannon, executive director for the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, told us.

That pursuit continues with myriad records requests from journalists — including at least a dozen from the San Antonio Express-News and Houston Chronicle — yet to be fulfilled as the Uvalde County district attorney, the city of Uvalde and DPS play off one another to hold back records. State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a San Antonio Democrat who represents Uvalde, has sued DPS.

“Weeks have come and gone, and yet families who lost their children have not been told by their government the basic information about who was on site as their children bled, what tools were at their disposal to stop the gunman, and exactly why they decided to wait instead of act,” he said in a statement.

Grieving families deserved an immediate accurate timeline. So did the broader public. It is literally the least officials could have done.

Threatening the future

And so we arrive at the fifth failure: failing to prevent future mass shootings or respond at the state level with moral urgency. Rather than call a special session, Abbott has formed special committees. Rather than consider gun safety laws, he has emphasized mental health.

Even the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which we support and is the most robust federal gun safety reforms in decades, is, in many ways, modest. It offers enhanced background checks for would-be gun buyers who are younger than 21, closes the “boyfriend loophole” to include dating partners in prohibiting domestic abusers from owning a gun; provides incentives for states to adopt red flag laws; and goes big on mental health funding, especially for schools.

We view such reforms as a starting point, not a culmination. And yet at the recent Texas GOP convention, attendees booed Sen. John Cornyn, who led negotiations. For many, even these modest reforms, which will save lives, are anathema. What has become of us?

Taken together, these failures represent a crisis of governance. Abbott and other public officials failed to be accurate with the public about what happened in Uvalde, just as they continue to fail to be honest about the role guns play in gun violence.

It could have been worse, Abbott said. With each revelation, it is worse. Be livid.