Uvalde Cop Response Collapsing By Charles Taylor (Florida)
The back story to the Uvalde school shooting fiasco gets crazier, with it being reported that not only did the cops, who were fully armed, wait an incredible 77 minutes before tackling the gunman, but there were almost 400 cops there! And, there were issues such as trying to find a key to a room, where children were dying, only the room was unlocked. With that many cops, they could have broken the door down. I have felt from the beginning that this was a conspiracy, coming at the convenient time of a national gun banning drive. It is hard to believe that cops could possibly be that incompetent.
“Nearly 400 law-enforcement officers responded to the scene of the Uvalde school massacre, but their “overall lackadaisical approach” meant the gunman wasn’t confronted for more than a hour — helping him slaughter 19 fourth-graders and two teachers, a scathing new probe says.
In one outrageous finding by the special Texas House panel investigating the deadly debacle, the local chief schools cop “wasted” a “precious” 40 minutes searching for a key to a room with dying children inside — when it’s “very likely” that the door wasn’t even locked, probers said.
“At Robb Elementary, law enforcement responders failed to adhere to their active shooter training, and they failed to prioritize saving innocent lives over their own safety,” the report said.
Responding to the May 24 mass-shooting scene in the Texas town were 376 law-enforcement personnel: 149 Border Patrol officers; 91 members of the state Department of Public Safety; 14 from the Department of Homeland Security; 25 from the Uvalde Police Department; 16 from the San Antonio Police Department and another 16 from the Uvalde County Sheriff’s Office, according to a report from a Texas House investigative panel released Sunday.
Yet the army of law enforcement was part of the “systemic failures and egregious poor decision making” contributing to the tragic debacle, probers said.
In this crisis, no responder seized the initiative to establish an incident command post,” the report said.
“Despite an obvious atmosphere of chaos, the ranking officers of other responding agencies did not approach the Uvalde [school district] chief of police or anyone else perceived to be in command to point out the lack of and need for a command post, or to offer that specific assistance,” the report said.
“In this sense, the entirety of law enforcement and its training, preparation, and response shares systemic responsibility for many missed opportunities on that tragic day.”
The report noted that at least one Uvalde cop had heard the 911 calls coming from inside the classroom and knew the gravely injured students were trapped inside.
“It is likely that most of the deceased victims perished immediately during the attacker’s initial barrage of gunfire. However, given the information known about victims who survived through the time of the breach and who later died on the way to the hospital, it is plausible that some victims could have survived if they had not had to wait 73 additional minutes for rescue.”
The probe also raised more questions about whether the door of the classroom Ramos stormed was locked and why the police focused so much on finding a key.
“An offsite overall incident commander may have suggested checking to see if officers could open the door without a key—in hindsight, they probably could have,” the report said.
School officials also had master keys, including the principal, but cops never asked her for one to the door, the report noted.
Finding a key became the “primary focus” of school-district Police Chief Pete Arredondo for 40 minutes, when guidelines for cops say that in the event of not being able to find a crucial key, responders “should use another technique to enter the area without delay.
“But nobody ever checked the doors of Rooms 111 or 112 to confirm they were actually locked or secured,” the report said. “Room 111 probably was not. Chief Arredondo’s search for a key consumed his attention and wasted precious time, delaying the breach of the classrooms.”
The chairman of the Texas House committee, Dustin Burrows, said at a press conference Sunday, “There were officers who knew or should have known more should have been done.
“If they didn’t take over command, they should have at the very least offered support and guidance.”
The House panel said there will be other “investigative arms” looking into why police didn’t act sooner to take out the shooter and “who knew what, when.”
Vincent Salazar, the grandfather of slain 11-year-old Layla Salazar, told The Associated Press of the first-responders Sunday, “It’s a joke.
“They’re a joke. They’ve got no business wearing a badge. None of them do.”
The findings also describe a series of “shortcomings and failures of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District and of various agencies and officers of law enforcement,” although the only “villain” the committee found was the shooter himself.
“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 says.
The report surfaced as the families of the slaughter’s victims were told the acting police chief of Uvalde has been suspended.
Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin shared news of the chief’s suspension Sunday with the families during a meeting between them and the special Texas House committee investigating the blundering police response to the shooting.”
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