“Systemic misfires” caused chaos that lingered for more than an hour during the shooting at Uvalde Elementary School in Texas, according to a preliminary investigative report released Sunday.
The 80-page report was obtained by several media outlets. He is the first to question the work of federal and state police in Texas, not just local authorities, for the inaction of several hundred heavily armed officers while a gunman shot dead students of a fourth grade class.
The document was drafted by an investigative committee set up by the Texas House of Representatives. It was published by family members of the victims. It is the most comprehensive examination yet of the poor response of the authorities to the May 24 massacre at the Robb School.
According to the Texas Tribune, 376 police were massed around the school, including 150 members of the American border police and 91 agents of the Texas police.
“It’s a joke. They are bad. They no longer have the right to wear a badge. None of them,” said Vincent Salazar, the grandfather of one of the victims.
The report is based on interviews conducted behind closed doors with more than 40 people, including witnesses and police officers who were at the scene of the killings.
Several investigations are underway, including one led by the federal Department of Justice. Another report by Texas State University tactical experts, released earlier in July, claimed that a police officer in Uvalde had the opportunity to arrest the shooter before he entered the ‘school.
This is an example of many testimonies that contradict each other since the tragedy. Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin refuted this document. This review was carried out at the request of the Texas Department of Security, which the mayor strongly criticized and accused of having minimized the role of his agents during the killing.