The Uvalde school police force is suspended for its actions during the shooting

Officials from the Uvalde school district in the U.S. state of Texas announced Friday that they had suspended the entire school district police force, five months after a shooting in a primary school will leave 19 children and two teachers dead.

In a statement posted on its official website, the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District said it “remains committed to resolving issues with verifiable evidence” and “recent developments have highlighted additional concerns with department operations.”

As a result, the district reported that it “has made the decision to suspend all activities of the Uvalde Police Department for an indefinite period of time. Officers currently employed will perform other duties in the district.”

They also placed two police department officers, Lt. Miguel Hernandez and Ken Mueller, on administrative leave. Following the decision, Mueller opted to retire.

The statement went on to say that he had asked the Texas Department of Public Safety to provide additional soldiers for campus and extracurricular activities. The district said it had hired the private investigation firm JPPI to conduct an investigation into the response of UCISD police officers to the May 24 shooting.

Many questions were raised regarding the school district police department’s response to the shooting in which an 18-year-old gunman, Salvador Ramos, entered the school through an open door and killed 19 children and two teachers.

_{* Some of the information for this report was provided by Reuters.}

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