Uvalde families renew demands for criminal charges

UVALDE, Texas — Families of the children and teachers killed in the Uvalde, Texas, school massacre are renewing demands for criminal charges after a scathing Justice Department report again laid bare numerous failures by police during one of the deadliest classroom shootings in U.S. history.

“I’m very surprised that no one has ended up in prison,” said Velma Lisa Duran, whose sister Irma Garcia was one of the two teachers killed in the May 24, 2022, shooting. “It’s sort of a slap in the face that all we get is a review . ... We deserve justice.”

The release of the nearly 600-page report Thursday — roughly 20 months after the shooting — leaves a criminal investigation by Uvalde County prosecutors as one the last unfinished reviews by authorities into the attack at Robb Elementary School. Nineteen students and two teachers were killed inside two fourth-grade classrooms, while highly armed police officers waited in the hallways for more than hour before going inside to confront the gunman.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland called the police response “a failure that should not have happened.”

But the report is deliberately silent on the question that still burns in the minds of many victims’ families: Will anyone responsible for the failures be charged with a crime?

Since the shooting, at least five officers have lost their jobs, including two from the Texas Department of Public Safety and the on-site commander, then-school district police chief, Pete Arredondo. But no one has been charged in the criminal investigation that was led by the Texas Rangers.

Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell initially said she hoped to bring the case to a grand jury by the end of 2023. But she pushed back that timeline in December and said Thursday she will need time to review the voluminous Justice Department report.