almost 400 police officers but “appallingly poor” decisions

Nearly 400 police officers responded to a mass shooting at a Uvalde elementary school, but “appallingly poor decision-making” resulted in more than an hour of chaos before the man who killed 21 people was finally confronted and killed, according to a report by investigators released Sunday.

The nearly 80-page report was the first to criticize both state and federal law enforcement, and not just authorities in the South Texas town, for the disconcerting lack of action by heavily armed officers as the shooter fired inside a classroom. fourth grader at Robb Elementary School.

“At Robb Elementary, law enforcement officers did not adhere to their training in the event of an active attacker, and did not prioritize saving innocent lives over their own safety,” the report states.

The assailant fired approximately 142 bullets inside the building, and “it is almost a fact” that he fired at least 100 shots before any officers entered the premises, according to the document, which detailed many of the failures in the response. They are between them:

— The commander of a Border Patrol tactical team waited for a ballistic shield to arrive and a classroom master key, which may not have been needed, before entering the classroom.

— No one took command despite the large number of police officers on the scene.

— An officer with the Uvalde Police Department said he learned of the 911 calls coming from inside the classroom, and he believed officers stationed to one side of the building knew there were trapped victims. Anyway, no one tried to break into the classroom.

The report—the most comprehensive version to date of the faltering and disorganized response to the May 24 massacre—was produced by an investigative committee of the Texas House of Representatives. The findings quickly unleashed at least one consequence: Lt. Mariano Pargas, an officer with the Uvalde Police Department who was the city’s interim police chief during the massacre, was placed on administrative leave.

Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin announced that an investigation would be opened to determine if Pargas should have taken over the place. McLaughlin also said the city will release all Uvalde police body camera footage of the massacre.

Relatives of the victims in the town received copies of the report on Sunday, before it was released to the public.

“It’s a joke. They are a joke. They have no business wearing a badge. None of them,” said Vincent Salazar, grandfather of 11-year-old Layla Salazar.

According to the report, 376 police officers attended the school. The vast majority of them were state and federal agents, including 150 Border Patrol personnel and 91 state police officers.

“Besides the attacker, the commission found no other ‘villains’ in the course of its investigation,” the report said. “There is no one to whom we can attribute malicious or petty motives. Instead, we found systemic failures and appallingly poor decision-making.”

The report noted that several of the hundreds of police officers who rushed to report to the school were better trained and equipped than the school district police, which the Texas Department of Public Safety, the state police force, held responsible for before not entering the classroom before.

The report was issued after several weeks of closed-door interviews with more than 40 people, including witnesses and police officers who were present at the scene of the shooting.

Texas Department of Public Safety and Border Patrol officials did not respond to a request for comment Sunday.

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