A day after a Texas House report found that systemic failures caused the bungled law enforcement response to the Uvalde, TX, school shooting, state and local officials pressed their own internal probes to determine what their individual agents and officers did and did not do during the May 24 massacre. The state Department of Public Safety later said it had begun to review the actions of every trooper, officer, agent and ranger at the scene to “determine if any violations of policy, law, or doctrine occurred.” The 77-page detailed report represented the most exhaustive account of the shooting inside Robb Elementary School so far. After weeks of competing narratives by agencies seeking to blame others for the assault, the committee did not single out one department but spread the blame across various agencies and the school system for failing to prepare for and stop the carnage, the Washington Post reports. Local officials, including the incident commander, Pedro “Pete” Arredondo of the school police department, did not take charge and officers from other agencies did not fill the void, the report said. The result was chaos that extended the time before the gunman was confronted and killed.
The report cited a lax culture around school safety protocols within Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District schools that left Robb Elementary unprepared for an attack of this kind. In response, Superintendent Hal Harrell said that the district is taking steps to reinforce its security, including installing new perimeter fencing and cameras, upgrading door locks and hiring additional school police and campus personnel. The report named more than 20 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies involved in the response and rescue at Robb Elementary. U.S. Border Patrol and the Texas DPS supplied more than half of the nearly 400 troopers and agents near or on school grounds that day, the report said. The parent agency of the Border Patrol, Customs and Border Protection, said it is conducting its own review of its response but has not yet reached any conclusions. About 145 agents were there, arriving from as far as 70 miles away from Uvalde, and worked to help evacuate students from other classrooms and help confront and kill Salvador Ramos more than 77 minutes after he fired the first round. CPB promised to share the results of its review. Officials also promised to work with state, federal and local government agencies “to answer the difficult questions on what went wrong.” Several other local agencies did not respond to calls or requests for comment, including the Uvalde County Sheriff’s Office.