The Uvalde, Texas, city council on Thursday discussed the findings of the independent report it commissioned to investigate the actions of Uvalde police officers who responded to the Robb Elementary School mass shooting.
Nineteen students and two teachers were killed in the Robb Elementary massacre on May 24, 2022. Officers from Uvalde police, Border Patrol and the Texas Department of Public Safety were among those who rushed to the scene.
Responders waited some 77 minutes at the scene before breaching a classroom and killing the gunman.
People visit a memorial for the 19 children and two adults killed on May 24th during a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School on May 30, 2022 in Uvalde, Texas.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images, FILE
The Uvalde City Council report, which was commissioned in July 2022, determined that among the police failures were: a lack of communication, a lack of records and a lack of selecting a clear leader.
Two months before the massacre, an active shooter training class was held in Uvalde. All of the instructors from the training were inside the Robb Elementary School hallway during the shooting, the city council said.
The report found that no acts of misconduct were committed by Uvalde police Sgt. Donald Page, who was one of the first officers to discover children in other classrooms in the hallway and started evacuating them through exterior windows.
Uvalde police Lt. Javier Martinez, Uvalde Detective Louis Landry and Staff Sgt. Eduardo Canales also didn’t violate department policy, the report said.
Victims’ families cried in the back of the room as the city council read its report, and later left the room, overwhelmed with emotions.
Community members embrace and mourn together at a vigil for the victims in the mass shooting at Rob Elementary School, May 25, 2022 in Uvalde, Texas.
Brandon Bell/Getty Images, FILE
Many of those who stayed, or returned, spoke during the public comment period.
“How do you live with yourselves? Shame on y’all,” Veronica Mata, the mother of 10-year-old victim Tess Mata, said Thursday. “You said they did it in good faith. You call that good faith? They stood there 77 minutes and waited after they got call after call.”
The investigation was conducted by Jesse Prado, a retired Austin police detective with 24 years of experience who conducted 36 internal investigations in his retirement career.
Prado was asked by the city to investigate every Uvalde police officer and the three dispatchers who were involved in the response, and trace their actions to determine if they violated any Uvalde Police Department policy. He reviewed body camera footage, dash camera footage and 911 call logs.
The report only investigated officers still employed by the Uvalde Police Department. Many at the department during the shooting have since left or been fired. The report also investigated deputy Mariano Pargas, who was acting chief on May 24, 2022, but has since retired.
In January, the Justice Department released a scathing report after it found “several critical failures and other breakdowns prior to, during, and after the Robb Elementary School response.”
The report described insufficient planning and major departures from established active-shooter protocols.
Law enforcement, and other first responders, gather outside Robb Elementary School following a shooting, May 24, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas.
Dario Lopez-Mills/AP, FILE
After the shooting had ended, investigators described a chaotic scene in which dead bodies were transported in ambulances and injured students were loaded onto buses.
“The extent of misinformation, misguided and misleading narratives, leaks, and lack of communication about what happened on May 24 is unprecedented and has had an extensive, negative impact on the mental health and recovery of the family members and other victims, as well as the entire community of Uvalde,” the Department of Justice report said.
The law enforcement response to the shooting was “a failure that should not have happened,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said.