WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - An investigation into the 2022 deadly mass shooting in a school in Texas has found that police response to the tragic incident was a failure.
On May 24, 2022, a teenager carrying a handgun and an AR-15 rifle opened fire at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, killing 19 students and two teachers. The children were aged between seven and 10.
The teachers were shielding their students from the attacker when they were shot.
The 18-year-old gunman, Salvador Ramos, was killed by law enforcement at the scene.
It was the deadliest shooting targeting innocent school children in the United States since the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.
The Justice Department released on Thursday a report on its critical incident review of the law enforcement response to the school shooting.
Releasing the report, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said the law enforcement response and the response by officials in the hours and days after was a failure. 'As a consequence of failed leadership, training, and policies, 33 students and three of their teachers - many of whom had been shot - were trapped in a room with an active shooter for over an hour as law enforcement officials remained outside. We hope to honor the victims and survivors by working together to try to prevent anything like this from happening again, here or anywhere.'
The report describes the responding officers' most significant failure as not treating the incident throughout as an active shooter situation and using the available and sufficient resources and equipment to push forward immediately and continuously to eliminate the threat.
Although several of the first officers on the scene acted instantly, once they retreated after being met with gunfire, the law enforcement responders began treating the incident as a barricaded subject scenario rather than as an active shooter situation.
The report notes that there was a 77-minute gap between when officers first arrived on the scene and when they finally confronted and killed the attacker.
It also makes clear that clearer and more detailed plans in the school district were required to prepare for the possibility that this could occur.
After the incident, law enforcement officials in Uvalde have been heavily criticized for their response to the shooting.
In response to the report, President Joe Biden said, 'There were multiple points of failure that hold lessons for the future, and my team will work with the Justice Department and Department of Education to implement policy changes necessary to help communities respond more effectively in the future.'
He urged Congress to pass commonsense gun safety laws to ensure that mass shootings like this one don't happen in the first place.
Vice President Kamala Harris called on Congress and state legislators 'to have the courage to act by banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, passing red flag laws, and making background checks universal.'
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