Uvalde school shooting: Law enforcement response was a ‘failure,’ DOJ says

UVALDE, Texas — The Justice Department issued a scathing report Thursday detailing failures in the police response to the deadly shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, which claimed the lives of 19 students and two teachers.

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Nearly 400 law enforcement officers responded to the shooting on May 24, 2022. Surveillance footage showed officers in a school hallway minutes after the gunman arrived, although they did not confront the shooter for more than an hour.

In a critical incident report released Thursday, the Justice Department said that responding police “demonstrated no urgency” in responding to the then-active shooting, outlining “cascading failures” in the response from law enforcement, The Associated Press reported.

‘None of us are safe,’ says mother of 10-year-old killed in Uvalde shooting

Update 1:25 p.m. EST Jan. 18: Families of those killed in the Robb Elementary shooting said they hope that the DOJ report will spur change.

Kimberly Mata-Rubio, whose 10-year-old daughter, Alexandria “Lexi” Aniyah Rubio, died in the shooting, called for the state and federal government to enact “sensible gun laws.”

She said, “Robb Elementary began the day an 18-year-old was allowed to purchase an AR-15.”

“I hope the failures end today and that local officials do what wasn’t done that day, do right by the victims and survivors of Robb Elementary — terminations, criminal prosecutions,” she said through tears. Later, she added, “None of us are safe. None of us are safe because these weapons are on the streets.”

Attorney for victims’ families calls for action on gun control legislation

Update 1:10 p.m. EST Jan. 18: Joshua Koskoff, an attorney for relatives of Uvalde victims, called for lawmakers to take action on gun legislation following the release Thursday of the DOJ’s critical incident report.

At a news conference on Thursday, he questioned why investigators did not scrutinize gun companies in the nearly 600-page report issued earlier in the day and criticized Congress for failing to act after parents who lost children in earlier school shootings, including the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and the 2018 shooting in Parkland, Florida, asked for action.

“How did this 18-year-old kid even know enough to know how to equip himself this way? What happened? What are the means by which gun companies are marketing these weapons to our children? How are they reaching them? Where is the role of marketing and the gun companies in this report?” he asked “There’s no fault or investigation whatsoever.

“The truth is you can respond to an active shooting, but let’s not delude ourselves. You might be able to save a few lives, but we can’t accept that that’s the best we can do.”

The DOJ report faulted police officers for a lack of clear communication and failing to immediately engage the shooter at Robb Elementary School. Hugh Clements, director of the DOJ’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, said there was an “epic, complete lack of leadership” in the response to the shooting.

Law enforcement response an ‘unimaginable failure,’ associate AG says

Update 12:40 p.m. EST Jan. 18: U.S. Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta called the law enforcement response to the Robb Elementary School shooting an “unimaginable failure” during a news conference on Thursday.

“A lack of action by adults failed to protect children and their teachers,” she said, adding that “the pain and the failures and missteps did not end when law enforcement finally entered the classrooms and rescued survivors.”

Gupta said a lack of leadership meant that there was no plan to triage the victims.

“Victims were moved away without ... appropriate precautions. Victims who had already passed away were taken to the hospital in ambulances while children with bullet wounds were put on school buses without any medical attention,” she said.

“In the commotion, one adult victim was placed on a walkway on the ground outside to be attended to. She died there.”

She shared details on the chaotic aftermath of the shooting, which kept families from quickly learning the status of their loved ones and included several false public statements from law enforcement officials.

Victims, survivors of Robb Elementary shooting ‘deserved better,’ AG says

Update 12:30 p.m. EST Jan. 18: U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said Thursday that he told survivors and the families of victims killed in the 2022 Uvalde shooting that “their loved ones deserved better.”

At a news conference, Garland said the victims should have never been targeted by a mass shooter or left alone with him for more than an hour.

“The families of the victims and survivors deserve more than incomplete, inaccurate and conflicting communications about the status of their loved ones,” he said.

“This community deserved more than misinformation from officials during and after the attack. Responding officers here in Uvalde who also lost loved ones and who still bear the emotional scars of that day deserve the kind of leadership and training that would have prepared them to do the work that was required.

“Our children deserve better than to grow up in a country where an 18-year-old has easy access to a weapon that belongs on the battlefield, not in a classroom. And communities across the country and the law enforcement officers who protect them deserve better than to be forced to respond to one horrific mass shooting after another. But that is the terrible reality that we face.”

Garland: ‘Most significant failure’ was transition away from active shooter response

Update 12:20 p.m. EST Jan. 18: At a news conference Thursday, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland described confusion among officers responding to the Robb Elementary School shooting.

“The department’s review concluded that a series of major failures — failures in leadership, in tactics, in communications, in training and in preparedness — were made by law enforcement leaders and others responding to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary,” Garland said.

“As a result, 33 students and three of their teachers, many of whom had been shot, were trapped in a room with an active shooter for over an hour as law enforcement officials remained outside.”

Seventy-five minutes after officers first got to the scene, authorities entered the room where the shooting was ongoing and engaged the gunman. He was dead two minutes later, Garland said.

In total, the gunman shot 45 rounds on May 24, 2022.

“Within minutes of arriving inside the school, officials on scene transitioned from treating the scene as an active shooter situation to treating the shooter as a barricaded subject,” Garland said, calling it “the most significant failure.”

“That failure meant that law enforcement officials prioritized the protracted evacuation of students and teachers in other classrooms instead of immediately rescuing the victims trapped with the active shooter.

“It meant that officials spent time trying to negotiate with the subject instead of entering the room and confronting him. It meant that officials asked for and waited for additional responders and equipment instead of following generally accepted active shooter practice and moving toward the ... shooter with the resources that they had. It meant waiting for a set of keys to open the classroom door, which the report concludes was likely unlocked anyway. And it meant that the victims remained trapped with the shooter for more than an hour after the first officers arrived on scene.”

Original report: “The most significant failure was that 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 classroom,” the report read, according to The Washington Post.

The newspaper reported that investigators criticized local police commanders and state law enforcement officials.

“Leadership in law enforcement is absolutely critical, especially in moments of dire challenge,” the DOJ report read. “It requires courageous action and steadiness in a chaotic environment. … This leadership was absent for too long in the Robb Elementary School law enforcement response.”

Many of the details shared in the nearly 600-page report had already been made public. However, the report represented the most comprehensive review of one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.

The report was drawn from more than 14,000 pieces of data and documentation collected by DOJ investigators — including training logs, personal records, CCTV and investigative records — and more than 260 interviews, the Austin American-Statesman reported.

“In summary, the response to the May 24, 2022, mass casualty incident at Robb Elementary School was a failure,” the report said, according to the newspaper. “The painful lessons detailed in this report are not meant to exacerbate an already tragic situation or further the pain and trauma to those directly impacted by the events on May 24 and the subsequent days, weeks and months.

“The goal is that this report provides answers to those directly impacted, while also conveying recommendations and lessons learned to the nation.”

Ahead of Thursday’s release, Attorney General Merrick Garland and other DOJ officials met with survivors and the families of those killed in the Robb Elementary School shooting. Officials also visited murals painted to remember the victims of the shooting.

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