Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Texas state police launch internal review of Uvalde response
UVALDE, Texas — Two months after the Uvalde school massacre, Texas state police on Monday announced an internal review into the actions of dozens of troopers who were at Robb Elementary during 73 minutes of bewildering inaction by law enforcement as a gunman slaughtered 19 children and two teachers.
The announcement appeared to widen the fallout of a damning 80-page report released over the weekend by the Texas House that revealed failures at all levels of law enforcement and identified 91 state troopers at the scene — more than all Uvalde officers combined.
It also amounted to a public shift by the Texas Department of Public Safety, which until now has largely criticized local authorities for failing to confront the gunman sooner.
The report made public Sunday laid bare for the first time just how massive a presence state police and U.S. Border Patrol had on the scene during one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history.
“You got 91 troopers on the scene. You got all the equipment you could possibly want, and you’re listening to the local school cop?” said state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat whose district includes Uvalde and who has accused DPS of seeking to minimize its role in the response.
The findings that Border Patrol agents and state troopers made up more than half of the 376 law enforcement officials who rushed to the South Texas school on May 24 spread the responsibility for a slow and bungled response far wider than previous accounts that emphasized mistakes by Uvalde officers.
The report made clear that “egregiously poor decision making” by authorities went beyond local law enforcement in Uvalde, who were eventually outnumbered more than 5-to-1 by state and federal officers at the scene. Other local police from the area around Uvalde also responded to the shooting.
The report puts a new spotlight on the roles of state and federal agencies whose leaders, unlike local authorities, haven’t had to sit through meetings where they were confronted by the furious parents of the dead children.
Buffalo shooting: The white gunman charged with killing 10 Black people in a racist mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket pleaded not guilty Monday to federal hate crime charges that could be punishable by the death penalty.
The shooter was indicted last week on hate crimes and weapons counts. The plea was entered in court by his attorney, who said she hoped to resolve the case before trial. Wearing an orange jumpsuit and shackles, Payton Gendron was silent during the brief arraignment.
The 27-count federal indictment contains special findings, including that the attacker engaged in substantial planning to commit an act of terrorism and took aim at vulnerable older people — specifically 86-year-old Ruth Whitfield, 77-year-old Pearl Young, 72-year-old Katherine Massey, 67-yearold Heyward Patterson and 65-year-old Celestine Chaney.
Attorney General Merrick Garland, who halted federal executions last year, has not ruled out seeking the death penalty against the gunman, who turned 19 in June.
Abortion fight: Court battles prompted by the Supreme Court’s June 24 ruling reversing abortion rights played out in multiple states Monday, with a judge in West Virginia blocking that state’s 150-year-old abortion ban and one in Louisiana leaving an order against enforcement of that state’s ban in place, for now.
In another Monday development, the Supreme Court issued an order that put Indiana a step closer to being able to enforce a parental notification law involving girls who get abortions before they turn 18.
In West Virginia, Kanawha County Circuit Court Judge Tera Salango granted the Women’s Health Center of West Virginia a preliminary injunction against the 1800s-era ban, saying that in the absence of action by the court, the clinic and its patients, “especially those who are impregnated as a result of a rape or incest, are suffering irreparable harm.”
Attorney General Patrick Morrisey decried the ruling, calling it “a dark day for West Virginia.” He said his office will appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court.
Georgia investigation:
Republican U.S. Rep. Jody Hice of Georgia is fighting a subpoena seeking to have him testify before a special grand jury that is investigating whether former President Donald Trump and others illegally tried to interfere in the 2020 election in the state.
The subpoena, which Hice received on June 29, orders him to appear before the special grand jury in Atlanta on Tuesday, his lawyer said in a court filing. Hice on Monday filed a motion to quash the subpoena in federal court in Atlanta.
Any discussions Hice had as he investigated “alleged irregularities” in the election were within his authority as a member of Congress and are shielded by the U.S. Constitution from any legal proceedings and inquiry, his lawyer wrote in the filing.
Hice is challenging the subpoena in federal court rather than before the Fulton County Superior Court judge who’s overseeing the special grand jury.
Sri Lanka emergency: Sri Lanka’s acting president on Monday declared a state of emergency that gives him broad authority amid growing protests demanding his resignation — just two days before the country’s lawmakers are set to elect a new president.
Ranil Wickremesinghe became acting president on Friday after his predecessor, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, fled abroad and resigned after monthslong mass protests over the country’s economic collapse.
Wickremesinghe’s imposition of the state of emergency came as protests demanding his resignation continued in most parts of the country, with some demonstrators burning him in effigy.
The emergency decree invokes sections of the Public Security Ordinance that allow Wickremesinghe to make regulations in the interest of public security and order.
Wickremesinghe can also change or suspend any law during the state of emergency.
Hiking accident: Interior Secretary Deb Haaland is recovering after breaking her leg Sunday during a hike in Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park, the Interior Department says.
Doctors confirmed Monday that Haaland broke her left fibula in the accident, Interior said in a statement.
Haaland was expected to return to work virtually later Monday, an agency spokeswoman said.