(Uvalde) Two months after the shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas State Police announced on Monday that they have opened an internal investigation into the baffling inaction of dozens of officers at the scene of the shooting. The shooter killed 19 children and two teachers.
Posted at 10:44 p.m.
This announcement adds to the many repercussions of the release of a damning 80-page report from the Texas House over the weekend, revealing the extent of the boondoggle by law enforcement at all levels. levels as 91 state troopers were at Rob Elementary School.
These 91 state agents represent more manpower than the entire police department of Uvalde. A revelation that seems to have deflected popular anger as criticism has so far been largely directed at local authorities for not confronting the shooter more quickly.
The report released on Sunday reveals for the first time how massive the police deployment was and could not prevent one of the worst school shootings in US history.
“You have 91 state troopers on site. You have all the equipment you could hope for and you listen to the school policeman? asked State Senator Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat whose district includes Uvalde and who accuses Public Safety of seeking to downplay its role in the mess.
PHOTO ERIC GAY, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Public Safety did not give a timeline for completing its internal investigation, but said the actions of each state trooper present at the scene will be analyzed to “determine whether any violations of policies, laws or doctrines have been committed”.
Revelations that border agents and state troopers made up more than half of the 376 law enforcement officers at the scene of the May 24 killings have the effect of laying the blame for this intervention slow and chaotic on many more shoulders. The first versions of the course of the intervention emphasized the errors of the local police officers of Uvalde.
The damning report makes it abundantly clear that “gross poor decision-making” far outstripped local authorities in Uvalde, who found themselves outnumbered by five times as many state and federal officials. Other local service officers from the surrounding area also converged on the scene of the shooting.
Additionally, the report sheds light on the roles played by state and federal agency leaders who, unlike local authorities, did not have to attend meetings in front of parents angry at losing their child. .
Of nearly 400 police officers who converged on Rob Elementary School, only two are officially suspended pending an investigation into their intervention, Uvalde School District Chief Pete Arredondo and Lt. Mariano Pargas, who acted as Acting Chief of the Uvalde Police Department.
State police previously said none of its officers at the scene of the killings had been suspended. On Monday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called the report’s revelations “more than troubling,” but did not single out any particular service.
Public Safety did not give a timeline for completing its internal investigation, but said the actions of each state trooper present at the scene will be analyzed to “determine whether any violations of policies, laws or doctrines have been committed”.
Texas Department of Public Safety Director Col. Steve McCraw had previously placed the majority of the blame on Mr. Arredondo, identifying him as the commander in charge of the response and criticizing him for treating the killer as a suspect barricaded rather than as an active shooter.
The new report, the most complete to date, also criticizes Mr. Arredondo for having wasted precious time looking for the key to the class where the shooter was, rather than intervening urgently to stop the shooter. The document insists, however, that all the police services on the spot have failed miserably.