City of Uvalde report doesn’t blame its officers for response to mass shooting

Independent investigator Jesse Prado on Thursday presented his report during a city council meeting on the local police response to the May 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. In the 182-page report, Prado determined that the city police officers who responded to the shooting did not violate policy and acted in good faith. The report only investigated officers still employed by the Uvalde Police Department.

City officials hired Prado in July 2022 to review local law enforcement’s response to the shooting in which an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School. A large group of local, state, and federal officers began arriving on the scene, but authorities waited for more than an hour before entering the classroom where the shooter was located. Officers then shot and killed the suspect.

What did the report say? While Prado did not find evidence of officers’ misconduct, he found that the response lacked communication and clear leadership. Prado recommended that the police department review its active shooter response policy and ensure its officers are trained to respond. He also recommended that the UPD disband its SWAT team and instead collaborate with a regional SWAT force with more experience.

Is the report consistent with previous findings? A report issued in January by the U.S. Justice Department found that the more than 300 local, regional, and state officials who responded to the scene did not follow “generally accepted practices.” The report found that authorities failed to treat the incident as an active shooter situation. That earlier report also determined that local school and law enforcement officials posted contradictory information during and after the shooting that confused families who were searching for their children. A Texas House of Representatives report found similar failures.

How did Uvalde residents respond to the new report? Parents whose children were killed or injured in the shooting criticized the report during the Thursday city council meeting. Several parents said that police officers should be held accountable for their inaction at the shooting scene because they took an oath to protect the community. City Councilmen Hector Luevano and Ernest W. “Chip” King III apologized to the crowd at the meeting and said they were disappointed by the report. “The families deserve more, the community deserves more,” Luevano said. The UPD chief told families he would use the report for future department decisions.

Dig deeper: Read Marc LiVecche’s column in WORLD Opinions about the federal report on the police response to the shooting.