Grand Jury convenes to consider charges in Uvalde school shooting as DOJ releases final report

On Friday, DA Christina Mitchell convened a grand jury to consider pressing charges against law enforcement for what has been revealed as their critical failure to act in the Uvalde, Texas school shooting. The DOJ report condemns the officers for not acting to confront the shooter, leaving that shooter time to continue his murder spree. After the shooting, the entire police force was suspended. However, many who were in the force that day are still working for the city.

The DOJ report on the shooting at Robb Elementary School was released on Thursday and found that there were multiple levels of failure that led to the deaths of 19 children and 2 teachers, injuring another 17 persons. Breakdowns in law enforcement leadership, decision-making, tactics, policy and training led to the response and procedure failures during May 24, 2022. Some have been sued by families.

A criminal investigation is underway currently by the Texas Rangers. Local agencies are on that team as well. The investigation has been looking into "any criminal wrongdoing by officers who responded."

"The district attorney has received a preliminary report from the Texas Rangers and expects to decide whether to decline or pursue charges once the investigation is complete," the report states.

On the day of the shooting, news reports emerged with conflicting and scattered details. As the aftermath of the tragedy wore on, it became clear that there were countless errors made. Reports revealed that some parents who arrived on the scene attempted to rush into the school only to be stopped by law enforcement and that command decisions were not made consistent with proper procedure. The day went from a terrible tragedy of a mass shooting of innocents to one that could have been far less deadly had law enforcement acted to save the children rather than to stave off the gunman. Outrage followed, not just in Uvalde but across the country.

The 610-page report reveals that the responding officers’ “most significant failure" was not “immediately recogniz[ing] the incident as an active shooter situation.” The children were all between the ages of 9 to 11 years old.

On May 24, 2022, a gunman entered the elementary school. He went through the halls and made his way to a classroom, went inside, and opened fire on the children. Officers who first responded to the scene "acted consistent with generally accepted practices to try to engage the subject," the report states, but they were met with gunfire from the suspect.

At that point, officers retreated and changed their posture to one of dealing with a barricaded subject instead of an active shooter. There were 77 minutes between officers arriving on the scene and their engagement with the suspect. During that time, children kept dying. Children called 911 to report the shooting, telling dispatchers: “Help!” “Help!” “Help!” “I don’t want to die. My teacher is dead.” “One of my teachers is still alive but shot.” “There is a lot of dead bodies."

In radio logs shared on June 22, 2022, one month after the shooting, Chief Arredondo responded to reports that several children were still alive and were begging via 911 for police to save them. In response to the added pressure to breach the room, the chief reportedly said, "Tell them to f*cking wait!"

"In addition to the overall failure to appreciate the active shooter nature of the situation," the DOJ report states, "responders also failed to act promptly even after hearing gunshots around 12:21 p.m., which should have spurred greater urgency to confront the subject but instead set off a renewed search for keys."

"There were also failures in leadership, command, and coordination," it continues. "None of the law enforcement leaders at the scene established an incident command structure to provide timely direction, control, and coordination to the overwhelming number of responders who arrived on the scene. This lack of structure contributed to confusion among responders about who was in charge of the response and how they could assist."

"Communications difficulties exacerbated these problems. Per UCISD policies, Chief Arredondo was the on-scene incident commander, but he lacked a radio, having discarded his radios during his arrival thinking they were unnecessary. And although he attempted to communicate with officers in other parts of the hallway via phone, unfortunately, on multiple occasions, he directed officers intending to gain entry into the classrooms to stop, because he appeared to determine that other victims should first be removed from nearby classrooms to prevent further injury," it revealed. Lack of training was also said to be a problem.