Darren Lyn
18 July 2022•Update: 18 July 2022
A report released Sunday by the Texas House investigative committee highlights multiple failures by law enforcement agencies during the May 24 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.
Nineteen students and two teachers were murdered by an 18-year-old gunman while police waited more than an hour before attempting to confront the shooter, who they shot and killed.
"There is no one to whom we can attribute malice or ill motives," said the report. "Instead, we found systemic failures and egregious poor decision making."
The 77-page report was given to the victims' families Sunday morning but does not contain all the answers as to why law enforcement agencies took so long to respond.
The investigative committee described it as an interim report, noting that multiple investigations are still ongoing.
"It's hard to hear that there were multiple systemic failures," said state Rep. Joe Moody. "We want to tell ourselves there's one person...that's just not what happened here."
The findings also detail failures by the Uvalde school system, the shooter's family and social media platforms, but do not pinpoint any "villains" besides the gunman.
The report also details that 376 law enforcement officials responded to the scene, but no one immediately went into the fourth grade classroom where the gunman was, which the committee believes cost lives.
“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 committee concluded.
State Rep. Dustin Burrows said at a news conference that several officers in the hallway or building "knew or should have known" people were dying in the classrooms.
"They should have done more, acted with urgency -- try the door handles, try to go in through the windows, try to distract him, try to do something to address the situation," said Burrows.
Some legal experts say the report leaves more questions than answers, especially when it comes to misinformation in the early stages of the investigation about the quick police response, when that was not the case.
"These types of contradictions, these types of conclusions that appear to potentially be flawed do nothing to provide answers and comfort to the families or to that community," said Thor Eells, executive director of the National Tactical Officers Association.
"I think it just exacerbates their frustrations and their feelings that they're just getting jerked around."
