Report clears city cops of missteps during school attack; parents irked
UVALDE, TEXAS >> An investigation Uvalde city leaders ordered into the Robb Elementary School shooting put no blame on local police officers and defended their actions Thursday, despite acknowledging a series of rippling failures during the fumbled response to the 2022 classroom attack that left 19 children and two teachers dead.
Several family members of victims walked out in anger midway though a presentation that portrayed Uvalde Police Department officers of acting swiftly and appropriately, in contrast to scathing and sweeping state and federal past reports that faulted police at every level.
The investigator who presented the report blamed families who rushed to the school that day for compromising the police response, prompting an eruption of anger from several families and some stormed out. Law enforcement took more than an hour to get inside the classroom and kill the gunman, even as children inside the classrooms called 911, begging police to rescue them.
“You said they did it in good faith. You call that good faith? They stood there 77 minutes,” said Kimberly Mata-Rubio, whose daughter was among those killed in the attack, after the presentation ended.
Another person in the crowd screamed, “Cowards!”
Jesse Prado, an Austinbased investigator and former police detective who made the report for the Uvalde City Council, described several failures by responding local, state and federal officers at the scene that day: communication problems, poor training for live shooter situations, lack of available equipment and delays on breaching the classroom.
“There were problems all day long with communication and lack of it. The officers had no way of knowing what was being planned, what was being said,” Prado said. “If they would have had a ballistic shield, it would have been enough to get them to the door.”
The city's report is just one of several probes into the massacre. Texas lawmakers found in 2022 that nearly 400 local, state and federal officers rushed to the scene but waited more than an hour before confronting the gunman. A Department of Justice report in January criticized the “cascading failures” of responding law enforcement.
Law enforcement took more than an hour to get inside the classroom and kill the gunman, even as children inside the classrooms called 911, begging police to rescue them.
But Prado said his review showed that officers showed “immeasurable strength” and “levelheaded thinking” as they faced fire from the shooter and refrained from shooting into a darkened classroom.
“They were being shot at from eight feet away from the door,” Prado said.
Prado also said the families who rushed to the school hampered efforts to set up a chain of command as they had to conduct control with parents trying to get in the building or pleading with officers to go inside.
“At times they were difficult to control,” Prado said. “They were wanting to break through police barriers.”
Family members erupted when Prado briefly left after his presentation.
“Bring him back!” several of them shouted.
Prado returned and sat and listened when victims' families cried and criticized the report, the council and the responding officers.
“My daughter was left for dead,” Ruben Zamorra said. “These police officers signed up to do a job. They didn't do it.”
A criminal investigation by Uvalde District Attorney Christina Mitchell's office into the law enforcement response in the May 2022 shooting remains open. A grand jury was summoned earlier this year and some law enforcement officials have already been asked to testify.
Tensions remain high between Uvalde city officials and the local prosecutor, while the community of more than 15,000, about 85 miles (140 kilometers) southwest of San Antonio, is plagued with trauma and divided over accountability.
Uvalde City Council member Hewctor Luevano said he was “embarrassed” and “insulted” by the city's report.
“These families deserve more. This community deserves more,” Luevano said.