The US Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a report on Thursday detailing failures in law enforcement’s response to a May 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. The report conducted by the US Justice Department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing detailed the failures in preparedness, training, and lack of urgency.
The report, which was launched days after the incident, includes a thorough accounting of data collected by the department’s team during their 54 days in the area as well as interviews with families, witnesses and survivors. While reviewing several documents and data, the DOJ identified several points of failure amongst law enforcement. The report describes law enforcement’s delay in entering the classroom where the 18-year-old gunman had 33 students and three teachers held hostage, despite their call for immediate help.
The report reads:
The most significant failure was responding officers should have immediately recognized the incident as an active shooter situation, using the resources and equipment that were sufficient to push forward immediately and continuously toward the threat until entry was made into the classrooms and the threat was eliminated.
The report also faults policing errors for the lack of communication with families during and after the shooting. These findings stem from the former school district police chief Pete Arredondo, who disposed of his radio and directed officers to assist victims in other classrooms instead of aiding the victims in harm’s way.
“I told the families gathered last night what I hope is clear among the hundreds of pages of the details in this report: their loved ones deserved better,” said US Attorney General Merrick Garland at the news conference after briefing the families on the report. Garland called the decision by law enforcement to wait over an hour to storm the classroom and take down the gunman a critical mistake. He said that law enforcement was mistaken in treating the situation as a barricade subject rather than an active shooter situation.
The 600-page report presents critical guidance on policing matters such as how to neutralize a shooter and aid victims under a present threat. The goal of the report is to provide answers to what occurred in May 2022 but also to issue a roadmap to prevent similar failures in the future.
